This paper examines the nature of the interactions between the Native American community living on the Port Madison Indian Reservation and the settler community directly across the bay, known as Port Madison, Bainbridge Island. I particularly focus on the period of the 1870s and 1880s, and I argue that the two groups were less driven by idealized and preconceived images of each other during this period when compared to the decades preceding and following it. This openness led to a complex social and economic environment which differed markedly from equivalent interactions of the 1850s and 1860s, and also from the 1890s and 1900s, but which resulted in a successfully integrated community during the 1870s and 1880s. This conclusion is presented with accompanying evidence from various sources, including a wide variety of archival evidence.

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