An Analysis of ?The Life and Murder Trial of Xwelas, a S?Klallam Woman :: essays research papers fc

Walking next to his father through the woods on a cool overwinter day, young Mason hears the sound of a bullet entering his fathers body. As he looks ahead, he sees his mother, Xwelas, lower a shotgun. In the taste The Life and Murder Trial of Xwelas, a SKlallam Wo valet de chambre, Coll-Peter Thrush and Robert H. Keller, Jr. recall the events ahead, during, and after the murder of George Phillips, a Welsh immigrant killed by his native wife. Xwelas the life before the murder, the actions which provoked Phillips death, and how the trial was influenced all help to describe the unusual history that took place in the seventeenth century.Xwelas had an unstable past that may have contributed to the petulance toward George Phillips. In the mid-1800s, there were several reasons that it was important to marry a person of a different race. The threat of slavery, depopulation due to disease, and the breakdown of traditional ways, could have advance a young Indian cleaning woman to seek relative refuge in marriage with a white man, miles from her home (272). Xwelas married a man named Edmund Clare Fitzhugh, a native of Virginia who practiced law. After giving birth to two sons, Mason a Julius, Edmund found that home life was dull. He suddenly leftover for Seattle, leaving Xwelas to herself. However, she married William King Lear, an immigrant from Alabama. After bearing his son, Lear abandoned his family after learning that a relative died. He did not return for more than twenty dollar bill years. Finally, Xwelas found a common laborer, much less of a public figure than her last two husbands. The authors of the essay writeAs a forty-year-old woman with three children fathered by two different men, Xwelas may have been considered used merchandise by potential white suitors and by tribal leaders expression for strategic marriage alliances. Or perhaps there may have been a romantic attraction between Xwelas and Phillips. For whatever reasons, Xwelas married George P hillips on 9 February 1878. (273)Xwelas marriage to Phillips seems to have been the worst of her three marriages. Several accounts describe his alcoholism and violent rages. His beatings of Xwelas often drew the attention of neighbors, however, she sometimes tried to fight back, employ weapons such as oars. By Christmas of 1878, she was pregnant with her fourth child.The rocky relationship status between Xwelas and George Phillips provoked the fatal events on Christmas Day.