A Spokane woman warrior. A fighter. A figure of resistance.
Whistalks Way will replace Fort George Wright Drive as the name of the road that runs between North Government Way and the T.J. Meenach Bridge – a naming in honor of Whist-alks, a member of the Spokane Tribe and a figure of defiance to Wright’s brutal campaign against Native people in the Northwest in the 1850s. The naming, supported by the region’s tribes, is intended to honor Whist-alks and by extension all Indigenous women, past and present.
“The Spokane Tribe not only wants to honor our native women from the battlefields of the 1800s – we also want to honor the Spokane tribal women of our families today,” the tribe said in a memo to the City Council. “We honor the female warriors who daily fight to protect and preserve our culture, our lifeways, our families, our lands, our environment, and our Tribe.”
Who was Whist-alks?
Whist-alks, whose name means walks in a dress,” was the wife of Qualchan, a Yakama sub-chief who was ordered hanged by Col. George Wright in 1858. According to historical reports, Whist-alks attempted to resist her and Qualchan s capture.
Wright led a violent campaign to suppress Native American resistance to the spread of white settlers in the mid-19th century.
Fort George Wright Drive is now Whistalks Way.
The name change, an acknowledgment of the brutality imposed on Native American tribes in Spokane by Col. George Wright and the United States government, was approved unanimously by the Spokane City Council on Monday.