‘The Nordstrom’s of fireworks’

They come from Oregon and California. Colorado and Canada. One family traveled all the way from Hawaii. Another from Japan. Naturally, most come from within the state of Washington.

Their destination: Boomtown, an annual collection of some 50 fireworks stands located on the Nisqually Indian Reservation. In a time when fireworks sales are heavily controlled and confined to a limited time period, both within Washington state and outside its borders, many fans of pyrotechnic amusement come to Indian Country to buy their goods, where regulations are less strict, and supply is plentiful.

Organized by the Nisqually Indian Tribe, the outdoor market known as Boomtown is a place where tribal vendors set up their fireworks stands side by side along a long, open and grassy stretch of land off Yelm Highway. Other vendors sell food ranging from barbecue to various types of fry bread.

Whatever buyers are looking for, chances are they can find it at Boomtown, where the competition is friendly, but serious business. With a similar inventory and so many vendors in close proximity, sticking out as a seller can be as simple as making the right joke or compliment to a passerby.

Sometimes it comes down to how the store is decorated. Oftentimes it’s the name of the store. DK’s Boom Shack, Kaboom Korner. Jedi Light Trix.

Boomtown is not a year-round thing. It emerges from the ground just weeks before the Fourth of July. First the stands begin to appear through the trees that border the highway. Then come the digital signs along the highway that advertise the fireworks and food.
Vendors at Boomtown tend to agree July 4 is their busiest day. Some stay open on the fifth, offering deals to anyone looking to bulk up in advance of New Year’s or the following Independence Day.

Then, within a week, Boomtown is gone. Not to return until at least the end of the calendar year.

Though Boomtown is by far the largest collective fireworks operation within the Nisqually Indian community, it isn’t the only game on the reservation. Just past the Nisqually Red Wind Casino, right before the reservation’s southern limit, sit a small collection of independently run fireworks stores.

One of those little shops is called Leschi’s Best Buy. Its owner, Kitten Leschi, is a descendent of Chief Leschi, the legendary leader of the Nisqually Indian Tribe who was charged and later hanged in 1858 for the alleged wartime murder of Washington Territorial Volunteer Col. Abraham Benton Moses. In 2004, the Washington state legislature passed resolutions stating Leschi was both wrongly convicted and executed.

Kitten Leschi opened her stand around 1996. Because she ran a privately-operated fireworks store that wasn’t organized through the tribe, Leschi said she wasn’t welcomed by other sellers at first. Some neighbors called the police on her. Others tried to get her to match her prices to theirs.

“Because down there, they had been opening (stands) and nobody was here for years. And so, when I opened, they were like, ‘Oh, okay,’” Leschi said. “They were surprised.”

Leschi said things have settled down through the years, now that people have retired and their children have taken over the businesses.

“It’s a great thing for the Nisqually Tribe because a lot of people enjoy doing it for the holiday, for the money, for the camaraderie of people coming, because you get strangers you’ve never seen before, and they’re happy to see you, you have their product,” Leschi said. “Years ago, a man came from Yelm and bought a lot of fireworks and told me I was part of the Yelm community, ‘like it or not.’ So, I thought, wow, I fit in. Okay. And I thought that was very nice of him.”

What separates Leschi’s Best Buy from just about every other seller is that she’s open throughout the year.

“And so if people come up and let me know they want fireworks, I open up for them. I’ve had the military through the years come and buy things for funerals, and I’ve had people come to buy things for birth announcements, birthdays, you know, just other things besides the Fourth and New Year’s,” Leschi said.

When she started out, Leschi used to sell fry bread and Indian tacos. And she always had smoked salmon. Now she offers custom cedar planters and other items.

“But things through the years have changed and gotten a lot easier,” Leschi said. “When I first started, I was just the littlest shack you’ve ever seen leaning sideways, because my cousin had it and didn’t want to do it anymore, so I bought it from her. And that’s how I ended up with it.”

Leschi said that for years she was able to buy fireworks from the containers the tribe would get.

“And then a couple years back, they said no, private owners have to get them on their own. So that was something new. We had to personally go to the vendors in Puyallup, Tacoma, go to other reservations.”

The prices have changed over time, too. For a couple tough years the weather was “too hot to sell.”

“And we’ve expanded through the years,” Leschi said. “My brother did the porch, the awning, the cement sidewalks. He just made it look so good. And he painted it.”

For Leschi, and many within the Nisqually Indian Tribe, the tradition of selling fireworks is one that spans generations. Leschi said that her sister runs a stand down the street with some friends every year. One of Leschi’s grandsons helps them out.

Just across the highway from Leschi’s Best Buy, members of the Kautz family and members of the McCloud family each run respective shops. A few other nearby stores opened — were literally built — during the run-up to July 4.

“And everybody, we just work till it’s done, and enjoy each other’s time,” Leschi said.

Shane Kautz has run Kautz Fireworks for the last 15 years. He credits his grandfather, Neugen Kautz, for starting the practice of selling fireworks on the reservation. According to Shane, the elder Kautz sold fireworks for 50 years before Shane took the business over.
“He’s one of the last original Salmon Warriors that fought for all the fishing rights, too,” the younger Kautz said.

One customer, who went only by Pat, said he’s been coming to Kautz Fireworks for about 10 to 15 years. He likes the fact he can negotiate prices.

“They always wheel and deal with me,” Pat said, adding that he doesn’t go to Boomtown because it’s too crowded.

Pride runs deep inside these stands. The names of the businesses alone conjure up rich histories that go back hundreds of years. The Kautz’s connection to Leschi goes all the way back to the 1850s, when a German-American officer named August Valentine Kautz married a Nisqually woman known, in English, as Kitty Etta. Kitty was the daughter of Nisqually Chief Quiemuth, who was Chief Leschi’s half brother. Kautz and Kitty’s first son was named Nugen.

Though his time among the Nisqually was temporary, August Kautz is credited with trying to stop the hanging of Chief Leschi, arguing that it was illegal because Leschi had been engaged in combat. As such, Leschi should have been treated as a prisoner of war. Kautz even published a newspaper called the Truth Teller that defended Leschi.

Kitten Leschi is quick to recall the many difficult years that came both before and after Chief Leschi was arrested upon order from territorial Gov. Isaac Stevens.

“There was no housing, there was nothing,” Leschi said. “Just, here’s your land. You know? And then we had the Fishing Wars to take care of ourselves. A lot of people in the community went to jail and things like that way back when. And that was a lot of our income. And when the dams went up, it was like, when you went to Safeway, there was no food. And so, it was very hard for them, and in the paper, everybody talking so bad about the Natives and things. It was really a hard beginning.”

Leschi said that more tribes, like the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, are being recognized every day.

“That’s really good to see. Because so many were unrecognized for years.”

And, after three decades, Leschi’s Best Buy remains.

“The best thing a man ever said to me,” Leschi said. “One day, I was opening up and I go, ‘Are you okay? You want me to show anything?’ He says, ‘No, I’m just looking. You’re like the Nordstrom’s of fireworks.’ And I’m like, ‘Okay, you look all you want. You made my day.’