Kitsap (Suquamish leader)

Kitsap or Ktsap (died April 18, 1860 ) was a war chief of the Suquamish Native American tribe. One source says that he was the most powerful chief on Puget Sound from 1790 to 1845. Kitsap County, Washington and the Kitsap Peninsula are named for him.

Sources suggest that Kitsap was the brother of Schweabe, the father of Chief Seattle. He was an ancestor of Johnny Kitsap, 1908, also known as Chief Kitsap.

Having been prominent before white settlement of Puget Sound began, oral history is the only basis for most of what can be said about Kitsap, and many reports offer conflicting information. He may have been one of the Indians who was welcomed aboard HMS Discovery by Captain George Vancouver during his exploration of Puget Sound. Some sources indicate that it was Kitsap who had Old Man House, Puget Sound's largest longhouse, built on Agate Pass, though other sources debate this.

Aside from being one of the best-known war chiefs of the Suquamish, at one point Kitsap was acknowledged as the head of the largest intertribal coalition that Puget Sound had ever seen. Around 1825, the Puget Sound Indians, not normally organized above the level of individual bands, formed a coalition under Kitsap to strike against the Cowichan Tribes of southeast Vancouver Island, who often raided Puget Sound. After a battle on Dungeness Spit, the Puget Sound coalition reportedly returned with 40 of 200 canoes and the Cowichan with “about the same number.”

Chief Kitsap was also prominent in the Indian War of 1855–1856. Like his comrade in arms, Chief Leschi, Kitsap was arrested for the part he played in the hostilities, but unlike Leschi, Kitsap was acquitted. Known to boast of his healing skills and his supposed invincibility (he claimed that no man could kill him), Kitsap was killed shortly after returning to his tribe in 1860. Three of his tribesmen had fallen ill, and died after he administered them a red liquid as medicine; their relatives killed Kitsap to avenge what they saw as willful murder.