Seattle 1999. As a part of the anti-globalization movement there were a series of protests surrounding the World Trade Organization or WTO that held a conference at the Washington State Convention. It was supposed to the launch of a new millennial round of trade negotiations but quickly turned into about 40,000 protestors barricading streets, smashing windows of nearby stores and locking down intersections in downtown Seattle. This led to the King County Sheriff Office and Seattle Police department firing pepper spray, tear gas, stun grenades and arresting over 500 people. The protests resulted in over 150 wrongful arrest by police that led to the an out of court settlement of $250,000 paid to the arrested by the City of Seattle but more importantly the increased exposure of WTO in US media and the creation of the independent media center which is a global, open publishing network offering grassroot, non-corporate coverage. This has gone down in the history books and movies as The Battle of Seattle. But the real Battle of Seattle happened 143 years earlier on January 26th, 1856. In 1856, Seattle was a small settlement located where Pioneer Square is right now; founded by the Denny Party I talked about last Christmas. If you haven’t listened to that story, you should even if it’s not holiday season yet. I’ll put the link in the show notes. The first plats for the village were filed in 1853 and nominal land settlements were established in 1855. This caused a series of small skirmishes between the settlers and the Native Americans they were pushing out. See, the Natives were pissed by these treaties that came from controversial Governor Isaac Stevens. On January 21st, Governor Stevens declared a quote unquote war of extermination upon the natives. 5 days later, hidden in the forests surrounding the small clearing by the Puget, indian tribes waited to ambush the settlers. And they would have been successful too! If it wasn’t for the Decatur. Warship under Sail The USS Decatur in the Pacific West LORRAINE MCCONAGHY http://www.washington.edu/uwpress/search/books/MCCWAR.html Episode 12 - The First Pacific Northwest Christmas https://soundcloud.com/pnwcast/episode-12-the-first-pacific-northwest-christmas PNWcast.com/listen