Archives West Finding Aid

Heister Dean Guie was born in 1896 in Seattle, Washington, and studied at the University of Washington. In 1923, he moved to Yakima, Washington, where he worked as a journalist, editor, and author. He was the editor and illustrator for Mourning Dove's book, "Coyote Stories" (1933). He also wrote "Tribal Days of the Yakimas" (1937) and "Bugles in the Valley: Garnett's Fort Simcoe" (1956, revised edition 1977). He died in Yakima in 1978.

Sources: "Primary Sources Data Sheet," edited by Richard Engeman, Pacific Northwest Quarterly, Vol. 82, No. 2 (April 1991); "The Evolution of Mourning Dove's Coyote Stories," by Alanna Kathleen Brown, Studies in American Indian Literatures, Series 2, Vol. 4, No. 2/3 (Summer/Fall 1992); vital records via Ancestry.com.

Fort Simcoe was established by the U.S. Army in August 1856 in what would later become Yakima County, Washington, with the purpose of preventing or quelling hostilities between Native peoples and Euro-American emigrants. The fort's location had long been used as a camping site by the Yakama people, who called the place "Mool Mool" for the nearby cold springs. The fort's first commander was Robert S. Garnett (1819-1861), and its buildings were designed by Louis Scholl (1829-1911), a clerk and draftsman stationed at Fort Dalles, Oregon.

In 1859, the soldiers stationed at Fort Simcoe were ordered to leave, being split between Colville and Fort Walla Walla. The fort lay within the Yakama Indian Reservation, which had been established after the Yakima War, and its facilities were transferred to the Yakama Indian Agency, part of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Soon afterward, Methodist missionary James Wilbur established an Indian boarding school at the fort. At the school, Yakama children were assigned English names and forced to renounce their traditional language, religion, and traditions as a means to assimilate them into Euro-American society. They were also instructed in reading and writing, carpentry and blacksmithing, and farming methods. Later, the Bureau of Indian Affairs sought to assimilate Yakama children by sending them to different boarding schools, away from the reservation and their families.

In 1956, the Yakama Tribe granted Washington State Parks a 99-year lease on the fort, and in 1974, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Sources: "United States establishes Fort Simcoe at the foot of the Simcoe Mountains on August 8, 1856," by Paula Becker and David Wilma, Historylink.org, https://www.historylink.org/File/5292; brochure for Fort Simcoe Historical State Park, 2022, https://parks.wa.gov/sites/default/files/2023-03/Fort%20Simcoe%20State%20Park%20Brochure%209-22-22.pdf