The Bitter Waters of Medicine Creek: A Tragic Clash Between White and Native America

(Alfred A. Knopf) Kluger tells the story surrounding the notorious murder conviction of a Native American tribal leader, Leschi, who was executed in 1858 in the Washington Territory. The case involved a fierce war fought between the Nisqually tribe and the territory’s militia and army, and centers on two leaders: Washington’s first governor, Isaac Ingalls Stevens, and Leschi, chief of the Nisqually tribe. Kluger is a social historian and a novelist who received the Pulitzer Prize for his book Ashes to Ashes.