Responding to the event, the few Bellingham police
officers seemed helpless in confronting an attacking mob
THE BELLINGHAM
RIOT OF 1907
By PAUL ENGLESBERG
BELLINGHAM, WASHINGTON, WEDNESDAY, SEP TEMBER 4, 1907
According to multiple sources, Punjabis were beaten, their belongings were
destroyed or stolen, and many fled fearing for their lives.
As the sky darkened on September 4, 1907,
a mob composed mostly of white men began to
gather in Bellingham’s Old Town at the houses of
immigrant millworkers from Punjab, India. Some
shouted, “Drive out the Hindus!” and “Help drive
out the cheap labor!” At the time, “Hindu” or
“Hindoo” was the most common term for all
people from India, regardless of their religion,
and was derived from “Hindustan,” as northern
India was known before British rule. “Hindu”
quickly became a pejorative term in Canada and
the United States.
LEFT: Front page of The Bellingham Herald, September 5, 1907. Newspapers.com. RIGHT: “The two hundred Hindu prisoners,” published in the
article “The Hindu in the Northwest,” World Today (Vol. 13, 1907) by Bellingham Herald newspaper editor Werter D. Dodd. Collection of South
Asian American Digital Archive.
According to multiple sources, Punjabis were beaten,
their belongings were destroyed or stolen, and many fled
of hundreds. They handcuffed two boys for pelting Punjabi fearing for their lives. The Victoria Daily Times reported
men with stones, but when surrounded by the angry that Runda Singh, Jarra Singh, and two other men fled
rioters, the officers released the boys. When Police Chief on foot toward the Canadian border—so terrorized that
Thomas arrived on the scene, he counseled the rioters to they barely stopped to sleep or rest until they reached New
bring the Punjabis to the police station and assured they Westminster, about 45 miles away, completely exhausted—
would be jailed in the basement of City Hall overnight. and Jarra Singh was beaten in Bellingham and escaped
Furthermore, he promised that the immigrants would leave without even picking up the wages he was owed.
town the next day. Chief Thomas later justified his deal Interviewed by historian Joan Jensen decades later,
with the rioters as the only way to avoid bloodshed, given Tuly Singh Johl, a successful Sikh farmer in Yuba City,
the small police force and the size of the mob. California, recalled the riot. He had been working at the
Continuing into the late hours, rioters raided several Larson lumber mill located at Lake Whatcom, three miles
lumber mills to drive out Punjabi night-shift workers. The out of the city. Those workers had not been rounded up in
mob forced their way through a high fence at the side of the riot. He recounted:
one mill and dragged three dozen Punjabi men to the jail.
I worked for seven months in a mill
The next day, the Bellingham Herald reported,
near Bellingham. Some of the men worked
“ . . . the mob ran amuck. With whoops of glee they gathered
double shifts and white workers were being
together the Hindus in Old Town and escorted them to the
replaced as the East Indians were hired.
station . . . the men from India were herded like so many
They were dependable workers. I was
cattle.” Apparently, the police neither registered nor took
working in the mill when the Bellingham
a headcount of the jailed men, and newspaper estimates
riot occurred in September 1907. Police
varied from 125 to 200.
put many men in jail for their own safety.
Mayor Alfred Black directed Police Chief Thomas to
I kept working, but the next day the mill
arrest the rioters who were engaging in unlawful actions;
manager said they would have to leave,
however, only five men were arrested. The local prosecutor
or the white men would burn the mill.
was unable to find witnesses who would identify the rioters
[note: translated from Punjabi]
and agree to testify, and less than three weeks after the
riot, the charges were dropped. Although the police were Estimates indicate that as many as up to 400 Punjabis
accused of having prior notice of the planned attack, Chief fled the city, many heading to Canada on foot, others
Thomas strongly denied this. travelling by train and steamer to Seattle and California.
Carrying sticks and clubs, the mob stormed
into houses, smashed windows, broke down
doors, and dragged Punjabi men from their beds,
some barely clothed. Rioters robbed the Punjabis
of money, jewelry, and other personal possessions.
They chased many of the Punjabis northward
across a creek and down the train tracks and
warned them never to return. Frightened, some
of the men tried to escape or hide in the tidewater
of the bay, only to be pelted with stones.
TOP RIGHT: Thakar (Tuly) Singh Johl, courtesy of Sutter County Historical Society Bulletin, Vol XLV, No. 4, October 2003. BOTTOM, LEFT TO RIGHT:
Headline from The Seattle Star, September 5, 1907. Newspapers.com. The Punjabi mill workers gathered with deputies after they were released
from the courthouse on September 6, 1907. Courtesy of author, published in Colliers September 29, 1907. Headline from Tacoma Daily News,
September 5, 1907. Newspapers.com.
COLU MBI A I 17 I The Belli ngham Riot o f 1 9 0 7
 During his investigation following
the riot, Bernard Pelly, the British
Vice Consul in Seattle, obtained
the names of 163 Punjabis working
in the Bellingham mills, however
hundreds of other Punjabi men
had arrived recently to seek work.
The United States–Canada border
crossing records for the month of
August 1907 alone show at least 200
Punjabi men admitted to the United
States and destined for Bellingham.
Four weeks after the riot,
only one Punjabi remained in
Bellingham: Dewar Singh was in
St. Luke’s Hospital recovering from
partially severed thumb sustained
while working at the Morrison
Mill. The company did not cover
his hospital costs, and Dewar was
forced to pay for his treatment
by chopping wood through pain
and tears. He left on foot for
Vancouver on October 2, 1907.
For decades after the 1907
riots, East Asians did not settle
in Bellingham.
Who were the Punjabis and why
did they come to Washington?
In the early 1900s the Punjab region in the northwest
of India was home to over 7 million people, including
Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs. Most of the Punjab was
under direct British control. With pressures of population
growth, land division, and family poverty and debt,
thousands of Punjabi men, primarily young Sikh farmers,
travelled overseas to seek work in Australia, Canada, and
the United States. Many of the earliest immigrants had
worked for the British as soldiers and police, and had been
stationed in British-controlled posts such as Hong Kong
and Singapore. After the end of British rule in 1947, the
Punjab was divided; West Punjab became part of Pakistan,
and East Punjab became part of India.
According to Canadian government records, only 10
East Indian immigrants (probably from Punjab) entered
British Columbia through Vancouver and Victoria in
1903; 45 entered in 1904, and the number jumped to 367
in 1905. Immigration from India increased dramatically
to 2,124 in 1906 and 2,623 in 1907. Although some of
the first Punjabi immigrants in the US and Canada were
Muslims, the vast majority of the immigrants from 1905–
1908 were Sikhs. The Sikh men were identified as such
by the surname of Singh, and typically wore a turban over
their unshorn hair.
Bellingham was incorporated in late 1903 with a
population of over 22,000. Located just 21 miles south
of the Canadian border, it had a railroad connecting to
the trans-Canada line. It boasted some of the largest mills
in the world, turning old growth timber into lumber and
shingles. Wood products were shipped by rail, steamers,
and clipper ships to ports on both sides of the Pacific.
Industry boomed and the city’s population quickly grew
to over 31,000 by 1906, according to the city directory. LEFT: Three Sikh men pose for a studio portrait taken by Henry Brown, Bellingham, Washington. Courtesy Whatcom Museum of History and Art, ID
1995.108.117. RIGHT: Images published in the article “The Hindu in the Northwest,” World Today (Vol. 13, 1907) by Werter D. Dodd. Collection of
Despite the increase, demand for labor was so strong in South Asian American Digital Archive. Upper left, “In strange surroundings,” an East Indian mill worker in Bellingham, circa 1907. Upper right, “Some
Bellingham and other Whatcom County towns that a of the Hindus driven from the United States to Canada.” Below, “Hindus on their way to the mill to draw their pay,” under the protection of the
shortage of thousands of lumber mill and cannery workers newly-sworn-in deputies, the day after the riot.
TOP: Bellingham and Northwest Washington brochure created in was predicted. The famed April 18, 1906 earthquake and labor was represented and the movement has doubtless
1907, promoting Bellingham and the three northwest counties of
Washington State. Describes the numerous commercial, agricultural,
fire that nearly destroyed San Francisco further increased their full approval. This is in all probability the first step
the demand for lumber, needed quickly for reconstruction. toward Unionizing [sic] the mills and is the end which I
lumbering, and mining opportunities of the area. Washington State
As over four thousand Punjabis entered British feared last summer.”
Historical Society, ID 1994.4.77.
Columbia in 1906 and 1907, many were unable to The mayor considered the riot a very serious and
LEFT: Postcard featuring Holly Street, Bellingham, 1907. The September 4
rioters had gathered at Holly and C Streets. Courtesy of the author. find work. The possibility of obtaining higher wages in unlawful action, however one councilman considered the
Washington, Oregon, and California led more Punjabis outbreak as “a young man’s frolic,” and another held that
RIGHT: Bellingham Bay and British Columbia Railroad depot in
Whatcom County. The B.B. and B.C. Railroad was started by local to cross the border into the US. “the mob was composed of men and boys who were out
boosters after the Northern Pacific Railroad chose Tacoma as its for fun.” Some historians have speculated that the riot was
terminus; it was incorporated in 1883 with the intent to connect Causes of the riot instigated by the Asiatic Exclusion League (AEL), a labor-
with the Canadian Pacific Railway for continental service. The line
from Whatcom County reached the US/Canadian border in 1891. Press reports identified both immediate and long- affiliated organization based in San Francisco whose goal
Washington State Historical Society, ID 2007.133.365. standing grievances as causes of the riot. When a depression was the exclusion of all immigration from Asia. Evidence,
hit in the fall of 1907, production slowed and lumber however, suggests that the Bellingham action probably
and shingle mills began to lay off workers. The primary caught Seattle’s AEL secretary, A.E. Fowler, by surprise.
accusation was the economic threat to mill jobs and wages, He visited Bellingham shortly after the riot and and issued
as the Punjabi laborers were believed to be willing to work a disapproving statement, adding that the AEL bore some
for lower wages than the prevailing rate. A further complaint responsibility for the hostile feelings that led to the riot:
was that the immigrant workers lived very frugally and saved “We may be held partly responsible for the occurrence, and
much of their pay to send to family in India. in a measure we are responsible, for we have been working
The Bellingham City Council, in a controversial up a sentiment against the Hindus.”
resolution, deplored the riot and singled out the lumber LEFT TO RIGHT: Mayor Alfred Black, Bellingham Herald, December 16,
mill owners as culprits for employing the Punjabis because 1905. Police Chief Thomas, published in the Puget Sound American,
“their presence in the city is a menace to the citizenship August 7, 1906. A.E. Fowler, Bellingham Herald, Sept. 16, 1907.
and the moral standing of this community.”
Mill owners were more concerned about the militancy
of the labor organizations than the fate of immigrant
workers. Glen Hyatt, the manager of the Bellingham Bay
Lumber Company, the largest lumber mill in the city,
informed the company president in San Francisco about
the riot and wrote that “most every branch of organized

LEFT: “Have we a dusky peril?” published in The Sunday Puget Sound American, Bellingham, September 16, 1906. Courtesy of the author.
RIGHT: Bellingham Bay Lumber Company, circa 1907. Whatcom Museum of History and Art, ID X.4605.
Three days later on September 7 in Vancouver, BC,
hundreds of rioters violently attacked the Japanese
and Chinese areas, smashing stores and hurling bricks,
following a mass meeting organized by Fowler and
the president of the Vancouver AEL branch. At the
Vancouver meeting, Fowler had praised the Bellingham
riot, and subsequently was blamed by some for inciting
the Vancouver riot.
Development of intolerance
and hostility
What led to the spread of such negative attitudes of
about the Punjabi men who had only begun working in
the city a year prior to the riot?
The first Punjabis in Bellingham, Linah Singh and Polo
Singh, crossed the border from Canada into Washington on
foot in January 1906 in hopes of finding better mill jobs.
They were immediately arrested for sleeping in someone’s
shed, and having no entry documents, they were promptly
turned over to immigration authorities, sent to Seattle,
detained there, and then deported back to Canada.
So unusual was their arrival in Bellingham—where no
interpreters existed—that there was confusion about their
names and country, and their appearance and eating habits
were treated with much curiosity.
Bellingham’s first organized opposition to the Punjabi
immigrants arose in September 1906, when white workers
at the Bellingham Bay lumber mill threatened the Punjabi
laborers, demanded that they remove their turbans,
and circulated a petition asking the mill to fire “the
Hindus.” In response, the Puget Sound American reported,
a delegation of three Punjabi workers appealed to the
federal immigration inspector stationed in Bellingham for
assistance and promised that they would not invite friends
or relatives to come to Bellingham.
This opposition led the Puget Sound American to devote
an entire page on September 16, 1906 to a feature on
this perceived threat. A huge, eye-catching question mark
accentuated the banner headline “HAVE WE A DUSKY
PERIL?” and illustrator Caroll Dibble’s drawings of Sanda
Singh, a local Sikh man, dominated the center of the
page. Although only seventeen Punjabi immigrants were
recorded as being in Bellingham at the time, the author
warned that thousands were in British Columbia with
hundreds more arriving each week on ships from Asia.
The article invoked the specter of the “yellow peril,” which
had long been used in anti-Chinese rhetoric, and warned
that the “invasion” could “threaten to overshadow” that
peril as thousands of immigrants from India could enter
Washington State.
On September 22, 1906, Walla Walla’s Evening
Statesman foretold of violent action: “Dire threats have
been made to the effect that the foreigners must be
exterminated before they crowd out the whites, and an
open race warfare is looked for unless the managements
of the mills take some action.”
Bellingham’s lumber mill workers met in the Socialist
Hall to discuss the “Hindu invasion” and to organize
against the perceived threat. Millworkers raised various
complaints about the Punjabis, many of which related
to their lack of understanding of the language and work
expectations.
As the numbers of Punjabis in the city grew to more
than 50 by May 1907, further opposition arose. The
newspaper, siding with those complaining that the
Punjabis were a “public nuisance,” proclaimed that South
Bellingham residents were in “mortal fear for their lives.”
The Reveille invoked racial hostility and xenophobia with
descriptions of “brown intruders” and “dark skinned sons
of India” and with diatribes that they “live and act like
so many hogs” and are “a quarrelsome, drunken, fighting Reactions to the riot
lot.” Furthermore, the paper warned of the danger of mob The American press mistakenly believed that
violence by “indignant citizens” who “will rise up and deal immigrants from India were protected as British subjects
with the brown intruders in their own way.” The Reveille under assumed treaties between Great Britain and the US.
had a history of agitating for the ousting of immigrants; The press and some local government leaders expressed
in October 1885, incited by The Reveille and the Knights much concern that the British government could demand
of Labor, over 25 Chinese residents were driven out of compensation for losses sustained by the displaced and
Whatcom, which later became part of Bellingham. abused immigrants. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer published
During the 11 months that preceded the riot, a column on September 17, 1907, republished in the small
Bellingham police arrested 18 Punjabis, and records reveal Bellingham paper Nya Varlden (a Swedish community
a pattern of racial bias in their treatment. In November newspaper), revealing that the 1815 Anglo America
1906 the Herald reported that three Punjabis were arrested Convention to Regulate the Commerce had deliberately
in Bellingham—this was following a fight with “a bunch of omitted the British colonies in Asia and the West Indies,
young Americans” who had been taunting them because and that no subsequent treaties provided protection for
of their “quaint dress” and “headgear.” The most common immigrants from India. This omission was discussed in
arrests were for alleged drunkenness. The records show internal communications between British Ambassador
that white men arrested for drunkenness were usually James Bryce and the Foreign Office in London, and no
released from jail the next day “per order of police chief,” demand for compensation was made by the British:
and in contrast, men listed as “Hindus” were usually
fined the equivalent of one to two weeks’ wages before The efficacy of diplomatic intervention is seriously
being released. Those listed as “Negroes” were “fired out prejudiced both by the relations between the Federal and
of town,” a practice that was common in many so-called State authorities, and by the fact that the Treaty of 1815
sun-down towns. which regulates the rights of British subjects in the United
In August 1907, labor leaders in Bellingham and Everett States can apparently not be appealed to on behalf of the
became more direct in the opposition to the employment British East Indians, as it applies only to the inhabitants
of Punjabi workers. Violent attacks against Punjabis and of His Britannic Majesty’s territories in Europe.
skirmishes with police erupted in both towns over
the Labor Day weekend, preceding the September
4 Bellingham riot. The Reveille on September 5
summed up the intimidations as “a succession of
beatings, scaring, and incipient riots which have
been stopped only by the prompt interference of
the police.”
Throughout 1907 and 1908, violent attacks
on Punjabi and Asian immigrants flared in
western communities. Although the Bellingham
and Vancouver riots were the largest, riots also
took place in Danville, Everett, and Seattle in
Washington; Boring, Oregon; and San Francisco
and Live Oak, in California. The Punjabis
received no compensation for their losses, and
as with riots driving out the Chinese in 1885,
no one was held responsible or punished for the
violence.
Regardless of the causes named for the
Bellingham riot, persecution of and prejudice
against Asian, Native American, and Black
people was rampant throughout the nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries.
TOP: Headline from the Tacoma Daily News on September 5, 1907,
reflecting the concern among press and some governing officials that Great Britain would demand
compensation for the East Indian immigrants who were victims of the Bellingham riot. However, the British government did not have any protections in
place for immigrants from India. BOTTOM: The American and The Morning Reveille, Bellingham, September 5, 1907, asserting that the US government is liable
for heavy damage claims, at a minimum $250,000, in response to the riot. This did not hold true. Courtesy of the author.

COL UMBIA I 20 I The Be l l in gham Riot o f 1 9 0 7 COLU MBI A I 21 I The Belli ngham Riot o f 1 9 0 7
 The newspapers in Bellingham and across Washington
State published similar reactions to the riot, disapproving
of the lawlessness of the method, but celebrating the
outcome of the eviction of the “undesirable” immigrants,
as shown in the editorial opinion in The Reveille:
The sentiment of the community is almost entirely adverse
to the Hindus. . . . Everybody knows that the Hindus are
a distinct detriment to this city and that their presence is
not wanted. But they are here under the full sanction of
the law . . . and are subjects of Great Britain . . . while
is it desirable to get rid of the Hindus, it must not be done
by violence and the shedding of blood.
The Bellingham Herald denounced the riot at first, but
editorials later noted, “local citizens are rejoicing over the
departure of the men and feel that a certain amount of
good has been accomplished,” and, “the races will not mix
and that the Bellingham incident will go a long way toward
impressing this fact upon diplomats and lawmakers.”
Washington’s Governor Mead, who was from Whatcom
County, made his support of the rioters’ aims known
during a visit to California. His anti-immigrant views
were reported in California papers, but curiously not in
his home state’s press. Rather than condemning the rioters
and upholding rights of the immigrants, Governor Mead
justified the vigilante action and denounced the Punjabis,
as quoted in the San Luis Obispo Daily Telegram:
The State of Washington will not
be the dumping ground for the refuse
of the Orient . . . The Hindoo is in
no way fitted to ever become part of
an American community . . . The
Bellingham people have adopted the
best methods of settling it. Take the
undesirables to the roadbed of the
Northern Pacific and point north.
They won’t stop until they have
crossed the line.
Only a few voices were raised in support of the rights
of the Punjabi workers. Several Bellingham ministers
spoke out against the rioting in their Sunday sermons,
excerpts of which were quoted in the press. Congregational
minister Rev. William Orr Wark criticized the police for
enabling the mob and for being in sympathy with its cause.
According to reports, onlookers to the riot appeared to
Editor Horace Cayton, Sr., connected the treatment of
the Punjabis with the racist ideology of white supremacy:
Whether it be North, South, East, or West in the United
States, it is always a safe bet that the white man is ever
ready to do violence to
some class of human
beings if they happen to
have a darker skin than
their own . . .the report
comes that the citizens
of Bellingham are
mobbing a lot of Hindu
people because they not
only wanted to work, but
were actually working .
. . in most of the mill
towns in this state none
of the darker races are Marking the occasion, the Bellingham Herald published
permitted to tarry for a series of in-depth articles about the 1907 riot and the
a single minute or mob Sikh community. Its editorial board publicly apologized
violence is enforced, for for how the newspaper had spread racial intolerance which
no other reasons than led to the violence.
the color of their skins. The editorial, published September 2, 2007, concluded:
If the white man is so It’s time to apologize for the venomous racism, for the
superior in knowledge demeaning talk, for the refusal to defend human beings
and religion as he boasts against a mob because of their skin tone and ethnicity.
of being, it would seem We apologize to the East Indian people in our community
that he would not be today, and to any right-thinking person who is disgusted by
afraid of competing with the actions this newspaper took in one of the darkest times
the inferior darker races. in our community’s history. We are disgusted too.
To further promote awareness, the Sikh community
Epilogue produced a documentary about the riot, We Are Not
Lottie Roeder Roth’s History of Whatcom County, Strangers, released in 2015 and available to the public
published in 1926, included a brief discussion of the on YouTube.
anti-Chinese movement, but it made no mention of the In 2018, the Arch of Healing and Reconciliation
eviction of the hundreds of Punjabis. Erasing history was installed opposite Bellingham City Hall and was
served the city’s image builders, and selective amnesia was dedicated “to honor the brave immigrants to the Pacific
a comfortable response to the racism and injustice inflicted Northwest from China, India, and Japan, and recognize
by white citizens who chose not to remember. For decades all immigrants who have come to America since the 1800s
after the riot, among the thousands of Sikhs living just seeking better opportunities for themselves and their
across the border in British Columbia, Bellingham was families through hard work and determination.” The
not considered as a safe place to live. 12-foot-high arch is composed of red granite from India
It was not until the 1980s that Sikhs and other South and rises above a base of black granite tiles marked with TOP LEFT: Sikh Temple in Lynden holding a commemoration of the riot
Asian people began to return to Whatcom County. By the “welcome” in many languages. 100 years later, September 4, 2007. Courtesy of the author.

sympathize with the mob, save one woman who walked
among the rioters saying it was “a shame.”
A notable exception to the xenophobic and exclusionist
views in the press was the Seattle Republican, where
LEFT: Governor Albert E. Mead, circa 1900–1910. Mead was
Washington’s fifth governor, serving 1905–1909. Portraits of State
Governors, 1889–2004, Washington State Archives, Digital Archives, ID
8637.
RIGHT: Horace Cayton, Sr., editor of the Seattle Republican, denounced
the actions of the rioters in Bellingham. Image public domain.
late 1990s, the Sikh community had grown large enough
to build the Guru Nanak Gursikh Temple in Lynden, ten
miles north of Bellingham.
The Human Rights Commemorative Project, led by a
group of Whatcom County residents and leaders of the
local Sikh community, was formed to raise awareness of
historic injustices on the occasion of the 100th anniversary
of the riot. Mayor Tim Douglas and County Executive Pete
Kremen issued a proclamation naming September 4, 2007
a Day of Healing and Reconciliation.
Today, there are several thousand residents of South
Asian heritage who live and work in Whatcom County. A
leader in the Sikh community, Satpal Sidhu, was elected
County Executive in 2020. Reflecting on the significance of
the Arch and the events it memorializes, Mr. Sidhu stated,
“According to the teachings of our religion, you should
never forget, but you should forgive. It is so important
for our children and future generations to learn from this
history and resolve that something like this should never
happen again.” b
TOP RIGHT:The Arch of Healing and Reconciliation, crafted of red
granite from India, was installed in Bellingham in 2018 as the result of
a citizen committee’s initiative. Courtesy of the author.
BOTTOM: Satpal Sidhu, Sikh community leader in Whatcom County.
Courtesy of the author.
Explore more through the documentary
film We Are Not Strangers.

COL UMBIA I 22 I The Be l l in gham Riot o f 1 9 0 7 COLU MBI A I 23 I The Belli ngham Riot o f 1 9 0 7