About this episode

This episode discusses the lynching of Louie Sam, a Semá:th boy wrongfully accused of murder in 1884.

Episode 432: In February 1884, a Scottish storekeeper named James Bell was shot dead in his cabin along Telegraph Road in Washington Territory, just south of the Canadian border. Within days, a fifteen-year-old Semá:th boy named Louie Sam was arrested on suspicion of murder and placed in lawful Canadian custody on Sumas Prairie. He never made it to trial. On the night of February 27, a mob of seventy armed and disguised men crossed the international boundary from Washington Territory into British Columbia, took Sam from his cell, and hanged him from a roadside tree 169 paces north of the border. No one else was ever charged for Louie Sam’s lynching, and the investigation into Bell’s death seems to have stopped with Sam’s death. Sources: Deadly Neighbours — Chad Reimer (Caitlin Press, 2022) The Lynching of Louie Sam — Keith Thor Carlson, BC Studies No. 109, Spring 1996 The Lynching of Louie Sam — John Vaillant, The Walrus, December 2008 Lynching Information — Tuskegee University Archives An American Mob Crosses the Canadian Border and Lynches Louie Sam — HistoryLink.org Our Territory — Sumas First Nation Sq'éwlets: A Stó:lō–Coast…

People in this episode

Host: Dark Poutine

Topics covered

• lynching
• true crime
• historical injustice
• Indigenous history
• mob violence
• border crossing

Keywords

• Louie Sam
• James Bell
• lynching
• Washington Territory
• British Columbia
• mob
• historical injustice
• Indigenous rights

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Caitlin Press, BC Studies, The Walrus, Tuskegee University Archives, HistoryLink.org, Sumas First Nation

Places: Washington Territory, British Columbia

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