The Whitman massacre (also known as the Walla Walla massacre and referred to as the Tragedy at Waiilatpu by the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

) was the killing of the Washington missionaries

Marcus Whitman Marcus Whitman (September 4, 1802 – November 29, 1847) was an American physician and missionary. In 1836, Marcus Whitman led an overland party by wagon to the West. He and his wife, Narcissa, along with Reverend Henry Spalding and his wife, E ...

and his wife Narcissa, along with eleven others, on November 29, 1847. They were killed by members of the Cayuse tribe who accused Whitman of having poisoned 200 Cayuse in his medical care. The incident began the

Cayuse War The Cayuse War was an armed conflict that took place in the Northwestern United States from 1847 to 1855 between the Cayuse people of the region and the United States Government and local American settlers. Caused in part by the influx of disease ...

. It took place in southeastern Washington near

Walla Walla Walla Walla can refer to: * Walla Walla people, a Native American tribe after which the county and city of Walla Walla, Washington, are named * Place of many rocks in the Australian Aboriginal Wiradjuri language, the origin of the name of the town ...

and was one of the most notorious episodes in the U.S. settlement of the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

. Whitman had helped lead the first wagon train to cross Oregon's Blue Mountains and reach the

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, C ...

via the

Oregon Trail The Oregon Trail was a east–west, large-wheeled wagon route and Westward Expansion Trails, emigrant trail in the United States that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon. The eastern part of the Oregon Trail spanned part of what ...

, and this incident was the climax of several years of complex interaction between him and the local Native Americans. The story of the massacre shocked the United States Congress into action concerning the future territorial status of the Oregon Country. The

Oregon Territory The Territory of Oregon was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from August 14, 1848, until February 14, 1859, when the southwestern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Oregon. Ori ...

was established on August 14, 1848. The killings are usually ascribed in part to a clash of cultures and in part to the inability of Whitman, a physician, to halt the spread of measles among the Natives. The Cayuse held Whitman responsible for subsequent deaths. The incident remains controversial to this day; the Whitmans are regarded by some as pioneer heroes, while others see them as settlers who had attempted to impose their religion on the Natives and otherwise intrude, even allegedly poisoning them. In 2021,

Blaine Harden Blaine Harden (born 1952) is an American journalist and author. His 2012 book '' Escape from Camp 14'' is an official biography of North Korean defector Shin Dong-hyuk. Journalism Harden worked for 28 years for ''The Washington Post'' as a corresp ...

published "Murder at the Mission" to explore how myths around the massacre and Marcus Whitman were spread by

Henry Harmon Spalding Henry Harmon Spalding (1803–1874), and his wife Eliza Hart Spalding (1807–1851) were prominent Presbyterian missionaries and educators working primarily with the Nez Perce in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. The Spaldings and their fellow missio ...

who survived the incident. Spalding was able to persuade the US Senate to print an official pamphlet about Whitman which was full of falsehoods. The mythology surrounding the massacre was used as a justification for taking land from the Cayuse people.

Background

Sahaptin nations came into direct contact with white colonizers several decades before the arrival of the members of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM). These relations set expectations among the Cayuse for how exchanges and dialogue with whites would operate. Primarily the early Euro-Americans engaged in the

North American fur trade The North American fur trade is the commercial trade in furs in North America. Various Indigenous peoples of the Americas traded furs with other tribes during the pre-Columbian era. Europeans started their participation in the North American fur ...

and the

Maritime fur trade The maritime fur trade was a ship-based fur trade system that focused on acquiring furs of sea otters and other animals from the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast and natives of Alaska. The furs were mostly sold in China in ex ...

. Marine captains regularly gave small gifts to indigenous merchants as a means to encourage commercial transactions. Later land-based trading posts, operated by the

Pacific Fur Company The Pacific Fur Company (PFC) was an American fur trade venture wholly owned and funded by John Jacob Astor that functioned from 1810 to 1813. It was based in the Pacific Northwest, an area contested over the decades between the United Kingdom o ...

, the

North West Company The North West Company was a fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. It competed with increasing success against the Hudson's Bay Company in what is present-day Western Canada and Northwestern Ontario. With great weal ...

and the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business div ...

, regularized economic and cultural exchanges, including gift giving. Interactions were not always peaceful. Native Americans suspected that the whites had power over the new diseases that they suffered. Reports from the period note that members of the Umpqua,

Makah The Makah (; Klallam: ''màq̓áʔa'')Renker, Ann M., and Gunther, Erna (1990). "Makah". In "Northwest Coast", ed. Wayne Suttles. Vol. 7 of ''Handbook of North American Indians'', ed. William C. Sturtevant. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institut ...

, and

Chinookan The Chinookan languages were a small family of languages spoken in Oregon and Washington (state), Washington along the Columbia River by Chinook peoples. Although the last known native speaker of any Chinookan language died in 2012, the 2009-2013 ...

nations faced threats of destruction through white-carried illnesses, as the natives had no immunity to these new infectious diseases. After becoming the premier fur gathering operation in the region, the HBC continued to develop ties on the

Columbian Plateau The Columbia Plateau is a geologic and geographic region that lies across parts of the U.S. states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. It is a wide flood basalt plateau between the Cascade Range and the Rocky Mountains, cut through by the Colum ...

. Historian Cameron Addis recounted that after 1840, much of the Columbian Plateau was no longer important in the fur trade and that:

... most of its people were not dependent on agriculture, but traders had spread Christianity for thirty years. When Catholic and Protestant missionaries arrived they met Indians already content with their blend of Christianity and native religions, skeptical toward farming, and wary of the whites' apparent power to inflict diseases. Local Indians expected trade and gifts (especially tobacco) as part of any interaction with whites, religious or medical.Addis, Cameron. "The Whitman Massacre: Religion and Manifest Destiny on the Columbia Plateau, 1809-1858", ''Journal of the Early Republic'' 25, No. 2 (2005), pp. 221-258.

Establishment of the mission

Samuel Parker and Marcus Whitman journeyed overland in 1835 from the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...

into portions of the modern states of

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

, and

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

to locate potential mission locations. Parker hired a translator from

Pierre-Chrysologue Pambrun Pierre Chrysologue Pambrun (1792 – 1841) was a French Canadian militia officer and later a fur trader in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company. Pambrun fought against the United States in the War of 1812, in particular the Battle of the Château ...

, manager of the

(HBC) trading post

Fort Nez Percés Fort Nez Percés (or Fort Nez Percé, with or without the accent aigu), later known as (Old) Fort Walla Walla, was a fortified fur trading post on the Columbia River on the territory of modern-day Wallula, Washington. Despite being named after the ...

. He wanted help in consulting with the elite of the Liksiyu (Cayuse) and Niimíipu (Nez Perce) in order to identify particular places for missions and Christian proselytizing. Whitman Massacre Site- present day view of the site of Whitmans Mission with sign of Cayuse name Waiilatpu

Whitman Massacre Site- present day view of the site of Whitmans Mission with sign of Cayuse name Waiilatpu

During specific negotiations over what became the Waiilatpu Mission, six miles from the site of the present-day city of

Walla Walla, Washington Walla Walla is a city in Walla Walla County, Washington, where it is the largest city and county seat. It had a population of 34,060 at the 2020 census, estimated to have decreased to 33,927 as of 2021. The population of the city and its two su ...

, Parker told the assembled Cayuse men that:

I do not intend to take your lands for nothing. After the Doctor
hitman Contract killing is a form of murder or assassination in which one party hires another party to kill a targeted person or persons. It involves an illegal agreement which includes some form of payment, monetary or otherwise. Either party may be ...
is come, there will come every year a big ship, loaded with goods to be divided among the Indians. Those goods will not be sold, but given to you. The missionaries will bring you plows and hoes, to teach you how to cultivate the land, and they will not sell, but give them to you."Brouillet, J. B. A
''Authentic Account of the Murder of Dr. Whitman and Other Missionaries, by the Cayuse Indians of Oregon, in 1847, and the Causes Which Led to That Horrible Catastrophe.''
2nd ed. Portland, OR.: S.J. McCormick, 1869. pp. 23-24.

Early contact

Whitman returned the following year with his wife, Narcissa, mechanic William H. Gray, and the missionary couple Rev. Henry Spalding and Eliza Hart Spalding. The wives were the first known white American women to enter the Pacific Northwest overland. HBC

Chief Factor A factor is a type of trader who receives and sells goods on commission, called factorage. A factor is a mercantile fiduciary transacting business in his own name and not disclosing his principal. A factor differs from a commission merchant in ...

Dr.

John McLoughlin John McLoughlin, baptized Jean-Baptiste McLoughlin, (October 19, 1784 – September 3, 1857) was a French-Canadian, later American, Chief Factor and Superintendent of the Columbia District of the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Vancouver fro ...

advised against the missionaries residing on the

Columbia Plateau The Columbia Plateau is a geologic and geographic region that lies across parts of the U.S. states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. It is a wide flood basalt plateau between the Cascade Range and the Rocky Mountains, cut through by the Columbia ...

, but offered material support for their venture regardless. In particular, he allowed the women to reside at

Fort Vancouver Fort Vancouver was a 19th century fur trading post that was the headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company's Columbia Department, located in the Pacific Northwest. Named for Captain George Vancouver, the fort was located on the northern bank of the ...

that winter as the men went to begin work on constructing the Waiilatpu Mission.Whitman, Marcus
"To Rev. Greene: May 5, 1837."
Whitman Mission. November 11, 1841. Accessed September 17, 2015. Because the beaver population of the Columbian Plateau had declined, British fur trading activities were being curtailed. Despite this, the HBC practices during previous decades shaped the perceptions and expectations of the Cayuse in relation to the missionaries. Whitman was frustrated because the Cayuse always emphasized commercial exchanges. In particular, they requested that he purchase their stockpiles of beaver skins, at rates comparable to those at Fort Nez Percés. The Mission supplies were, in general, not appealing enough to the Sahaptin to serve as compensation for their labor. Whitman lacked sizable stockpiles of gunpowder, tobacco, or clothing, so he had to assign most labor to Hawaiian Kanaka (who had settled after working as sailors) or whites.Whitman, Marcus
''To Rev. Greene: October 15, 1840.''
Whitman Mission. October 15, 1840. Accessed September 8, 2015. To bolster food supplies for the first winter, Whitman purchased several horses from the Cayuse. Additionally, the initial plowing of the Waiilatpu farm was done primarily with draft animals loaned by a Cayuse noble and Fort Nez Percés. The missionary family suffered from a lack of privacy, as the Cayuse thought nothing of entering their quarters. Narcissa complained that the kitchen was "always filled with four or five or more Indians-men-especially at meal time ... " and said that once a room was established specifically for Indigenous that the missionaries would "not permit them to go into the other part of the house at all ... ". According to Narcissa, the Natives were "so filthy they make a great deal of cleaning wherever they go ... " She wrote that "we have come to elevate them and not to suffer ourselves to sink down to their standard." In the beginning of 1842, when the Cayuse returned to the vicinity of Waiilatpu after winter, the Whitmans told the tribesmen to establish a house of worship for their use. The Cayuse noblemen disagreed, stating that the existing mission buildings were sufficient. The Whitmans tried to explain that "we could not have them worship there for they would make it so dirty and fill it so full of fleas that we could not live in it." The Cayuse who visited the Whitman's found Narcissa's haughtiness and Marcus' refusal to hold sermons in the mission household to be rude. upMarcus Whitman

Land ownership dispute

The Cayuse allowed construction of the mission, in the belief that Parker's promises still held. During the summer of 1837, a year after construction had started, the Whitmans were called upon to make due payment. The chief who owned the surrounding land was named Umtippe. Whitman balked at his demands and refused to fulfill the agreement, insisting that the land had been granted to him free of charge.Whitman, Marcus
''To Rev. Greene: November 11, 1841.''
Whitman Mission. November 11, 1841. Accessed September 8, 2015. Umtippe returned the following winter to again demand payment, along with medical attention for his sick wife. He informed Whitman that "Doctor, you have come here to give us bad medicines; you come to kill us, and you steal our lands. You had promised to pay me every year, and you have given me nothing. You had better go away; if my wife dies, you shall die also." Cayuse men continued to complain to HBC traders of Whitman's refusal to pay for using their land and of his preferential treatment of incoming white colonists.Brouillet (1869), p. 27. In particular, the Cayuse leader impeded Gray's cutting of timber intended for various buildings at Waiilatpu. He demanded payment for the lumber and firewood gathered by the missionaries. These measures were intended to delay the use of the wood resources, as a settler in the Willamette Valley had suggested to the noble that he would establish a trading post in the vicinity. During 1841, Tiloukaikt kept his horses within the Waiilatpu farm, earning Whitman's enmity as the horses destroyed the

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...

crop. Whitman claimed that the farmland was specifically for the mission and not for roving horses. Tiloukaikt told the doctor " ... that this was his land, that he grew up here and that the horses were only eating up the growth of the soil; and demanded of me what I had ever paid him for the land." Aghast at the demands, Whitman told Tiloukaikt that "I never would give him anything ... " During the start of 1842, Narcissa reported that the Cayuse leaders "said we must pay them for their land we lived on."Narcissa Whitman to Rev. Mrs. H. K. W. Perkins, May 2, 1840. Whitman, Narcissa Prentiss. ''The Letters of Narcissa Whitman.'' Fairfield, WA: Ye Galleon Press, 1986. A common complaint was that Whitman sold wheat to settlers, while giving none to the Cayuse landholders and demanding payment from them for using his grist mill.

Conversion efforts

The Catholic Church dispatched two priests in 1838 from the

Red River colony The Red River Colony (or Selkirk Settlement), also known as Assiniboia, Assinboia, was a colonization project set up in 1811 by Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk, on of land in British North America. This land was granted to Douglas by the Hud ...

to minister to the spiritual needs of both the regional Indigenous and Catholic settlers.

François Norbert Blanchet François Norbert Blanchet (September 30, 1795 – June 18, 1883) was a French Canadian-born missionary priest and prelate of the Catholic Church who was instrumental in establishing the Catholic Church presence in the Pacific Northwest. He was on ...

and

Modeste Demers Modeste Demers (11 October 1809 – 28 July 1871) was a Roman Catholic Bishop and missionary in the Oregon Country. A native of Quebec, he traveled overland to the Pacific Northwest and preached in the Willamette Valley and later in what would beco ...

arrived at Fort Nez Percés on 18 November 1839. Blanchet, Francis Norbert
Historical sketches of the Catholic Church in Oregon
', Portland, OR: 1878, p. 35. This began a long-lasting competition between the ABCFM and the Catholic missionaries to convert the

Sahaptin peoples The Sahaptin are a number of Native American tribes who speak dialects of the Sahaptin language. The Sahaptin tribes inhabited territory along the Columbia River and its tributaries in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Sahaptin-s ...

to Christianity. While Blanchet and Demers were at the trading post for one day, they preached to an assembled group of Walla Wallas and Cayuse. Blanchet would later allege that Whitman had ordered local natives against attending their service. Whitman contacted the agent McLoughlin to complain of the Catholic activity. McLoughlin responded saying he had no oversight of the priests, but would advise them to avoid the Waiilaptu area.Whitman, Marcus.
To Rev. Walker: December 27, 1839.
' Whitman Mission. December 27, 1839. Accessed September 17, 2015. The rival missionaries competed for the attention of Cayuse noble

Tawatoy Tawatoy or Young Chief, variously spelled as Tauitowe, Tauatui, Tauitau, Tawatoe or Tu Ah Tway, was a Cayuse headman. Alongside his brother Five Crows, Tawatoy held sway over one of three bands of the Cayuse nation. As the Catholic missionaries ...

. He was present when the Catholic priests held their first Mass at Fort Nez Percés. Demers returned to the trading post for two weeks in the summer of 1839. One of Tawatoy's sons was baptized at this time and Pierre-Chrysologue Pambrun was named as his godfather. According to Whitman, the Catholic priest forbade Tawatoy from visiting him. While Tawatoy did occasionally visit Whitman, he avoided the Protestant's religious services.Whitman, Marcus.
To Rev. Greene: March 27, 1840.
' Whitman Mission. March 27, 1840. Accessed September 17, 2015. Also, the headman gave the Catholics a small house which Pambrun had built for him, for their use for religious services. After Demers left the area in 1840, Whitman preached to assembled Cayuse on several occasions, saying that they were in a "lost ruined and condemned state ... in order to remove the hope that worshipping will save them." While he faced threats of violence for denying the power of worship,Whitman, Marcus.

' Whitman Mission. October 29, 1840. Accessed September 17, 2015. Whitman continued to tell the Cayuse that their interpretation of Christianity was wrong. Whitman had opposed closing the Waiilatpu Mission, as suggested by

Asa Bowen Smith Asa Bowen Smith, also known as A.B. Smith (July 16, 1809 – February 10, 1886), was a Congregational missionary posted in Oregon Country and Hawaii with his wife Sarah Gilbert White Smith. In 1840, Smith wrote the manuscript for the book ''Gramm ...

in 1840, because he thought it would allow "the Catholics to unite all the acificcoast from California to the North ... " Religious strife continued between the two Christian denominations. Cayuse and related natives "brought under papal influences" was, according to the ABCFM board, "manifest less confidence in the ceremonies of that delusive system."American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (1845), pp
212-213.
/ref> Despite this claim, in 1845 the board admitted that no Cayuse had formally joined the churches maintained by ABCFM missionaries. Henry Spalding and other

anti-Catholic Anti-Catholicism is hostility towards Catholics or opposition to the Catholic Church, its clergy, and/or its adherents. At various points after the Reformation, some majority Protestant states, including England, Prussia, Scotland, and the Uni ...

ministers later claimed that the Whitman killings were instigated by Catholic priests. According to their accounts, the Catholics may have told the Cayuse that Whitman had caused disease among their people and incited them to attack. Spalding and other Protestant ministers suggested that the Catholics wanted to take over the Protestant mission, which Whitman had refused to sell to them. They accused Fr.

Pierre-Jean De Smet Pierre-Jean De Smet, SJ ( ; 30 January 1801 – 23 May 1873), also known as Pieter-Jan De Smet, was a Flemish Catholic priest and member of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). He is known primarily for his widespread missionary work in the mid-19th ...

of being a party to such provocations.

Agriculture

Whitman and his fellow missionaries urged the adjacent Plateau peoples to learn to adopt European-American style agriculture, and settle on subsistence farms. This topic was a common theme in their dispatches to the Secretary of ABCFM, Rev. David Greene. Trying to persuade the Cayuse to abandon their seasonal migrations consumed much of Whitman's time. He believed that if they would cultivate their food supply through farming, they would remain in the vicinity of Waiilaptu. He told his superiors that if the Cayuse would abandon their habit of relocating during the winter, he could spend more time proselytizing among them. In particular, Whitman told Rev. Green that " ... although we bring the gospel as the first object we cannot gain an assurance unless they are attracted and retained by the plough and hoe ... "Whitman, Marcus
''To Rev. Greene: May 8, 1838.''
Whitman Mission. May 8, 1838. Accessed September 17, 2015. In 1838 Whitman wrote about his plans to begin altering the Cayuse diet and lifestyle. He asked to be supplied with a large stockpile of agricultural equipment, so that he could lend it to interested Cayuse. He also needed machinery to use in a

grist mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the Mill (grinding), grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist i ...

to process any wheat produced. Whitman believed that a mill would be another incentive for the Cayuse nation to stay near Waiilaptu.Whitman, Marcus
''To Rev. Greene: October 5, 1838.''
Whitman Mission. October 5, 1838. Accessed September 17, 2015. To allow him some freedom from secular tasks, Whitman began to ask that a farmer be hired to work at his station and advise the Cayuse. The Cayuse started to harvest various acreages of crops originally provided to them by Whitman. Despite this, they continued their traditional winter migrations. The ABCFM declared in 1842 that the Cayuse were still " ... addicted to a wandering life".American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions
''Annual Report: Volumes 32-36.''
Boston: 1845. Vol. 33, p. 194. The board said that the natives were "not much inclined to change their mode of life ... " During the winter of 1843-44, food supplies were short among the Cayuse. As the ABCFM recounted:

The novelty of working for themselves and supplying their own wants seem to have passed away; while the papal teachers and other opposers of the mission appear to have succeeded in making them believe that the missionaries ought to furnish them with food and clothing and supply all their wants.

Rising tensions

An additional point of contention between Whitman and the Cayuse was the missionaries' use of poisons. John Young, an immigrant from the United States, reported two cases in particular that strained relations.Brouillet (1869), p. 30. In 1840, he was warned by William Gray of the mission melon patch, the larger of them poisoned. This was from Cayuse taking the produce, to safeguard the patch Gray stated that he " ... put a little poison ... in order that the Indians who will eat them might be a little sick ... " During the winter of 1846, Young was employed on the mission sawmill. Whitman gave him instructions to place poisoned meat in the area surrounding Waiilatpu to kill

Northwestern wolves The northwestern wolf (''Canis lupus occidentalis''), also known as the Mackenzie Valley wolf, Alaskan timber wolf, or Canadian timber wolf, is a subspecies of gray wolf in western North America. Arguably the largest grey wolf subspecies in the ...

. Several Cayuse ate the deadly meat but survived. Tiloukaikt visited Waiilatpu after the people recovered, and said that if any of the sick Cayuse had died, he would have killed Young. Whitman reportedly laughed when told of the conversation, saying he had warned the Cayuse several times of the tainted meat. Measles was an

epidemic An epidemic (from Ancient Greek, Greek ἐπί ''epi'' "upon or above" and δῆμος ''demos'' "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of patients among a given population within an area in a short period of time. Epidemics ...

around

Sutter's Fort Sutter's Fort was a 19th-century agricultural and trade colony in the Mexican ''Alta California'' province.National Park Service"California National Historic Trail."/ref> The site of the fort was established in 1839 and originally called New Helve ...

in 1846, when a party of primarily

s were there. They carried the contagion to Waiilatpu as they ended the second

Walla Walla expedition The Walla Walla expeditions were two movements of Indigenous people from the Columbian Plateau to Alta California during the mid-nineteenth century. The original expedition was organized to gain sizable populations of cattle for native peoples t ...

, and it claimed lives among their party. Shortly after the expedition reached home, the disease appeared among the general population around Walla Walla and quickly spread among the tribes of the middle Columbia River. By the 1940s, historians no longer considered the measles epidemic as a main cause of the murders at Waiilaptu. Robert Heizer said that "This measles epidemic, as an important contributing factor to the Whitman massacre, has been minimized by historians searching for the cause of the outrage." The Cayuse involved in the incident had previously lived at the Waiilatpu mission. Among the many new arrivals at Waiilatpu in 1847 was Joe Lewis, a mixed-race

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

and white "halfbreed." Bitter from discriminatory treatment in the East, Lewis attempted to spread discontent among the local Cayuse, hoping to create a situation in which he could ransack the Whitman Mission. He told the Cayuse that Whitman, who was attempting to treat them during a measles epidemic, was not trying to save them but to poison them. The

tribes believed that the doctor, or

shaman Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritu ...

, could be killed in retribution if patients died. It is likely that the Cayuse held Whitman responsible for the numerous deaths and therefore felt justified to take his life. The Cayuse feared that he had treated them with strychnine, or that someone from the

Hudson's Bay Co The J. L. Hudson Company (commonly known simply as Hudson's) was an upscale retail department store chain based in Detroit, Michigan. Hudson's flagship store, on Woodward Avenue in Downtown Detroit (demolished October 24, 1998), was the tallest ...

. had injected strychnine into the medicine after Whitman had given it to the tribe.

Outbreak of the violence

file:Whitman Massacre from Nixon book.png, upleft, Painting of the assassination from O. W. Nixon's ''wikisource:en:Whitman's ride through savage lands, with sketches of Indian life/Chapter 10#img, Whitman's Ride through Savage lands'' (1905). On November 29, Tiloukaikt, Tomahas, Kiamsumpkin, Iaiachalakis, Endoklamin, and Klokomas, enraged by Joe Lewis' talk, attacked Waiilatpu. According to Mary Ann Bridger (the young daughter of

mountain man A mountain man is an explorer who lives in the wilderness. Mountain men were most common in the North American Rocky Mountains from about 1810 through to the 1880s (with a peak population in the early 1840s). They were instrumental in opening up ...

Jim Bridger James Felix "Jim" Bridger (March 17, 1804 – July 17, 1881) was an American mountain man, trapper, Army scout, and wilderness guide who explored and trapped in the Western United States in the first half of the 19th century. He was known as Old ...

), a lodger of the mission and eyewitness to the event, the men knocked on the Whitmans' kitchen door and demanded medicine. Bridger said that Marcus brought the medicine, and began a conversation with Tiloukaikt. While Whitman was distracted, Tomahas struck him twice in the head with a hatchet from behind and another man shot him in the neck.Drury (2005) Vol. 2, pp. 250-252. The Cayuse men rushed outside and attacked the white men and boys working outdoors. Narcissa found Whitman fatally wounded; yet he lived for several hours after the attack, sometimes responding to her anxious reassurances. Catherine Sager, who had been with Narcissa in another room when the attack occurred, later wrote in her reminiscences that "Tiloukaikt chopped the doctor's face so badly that his features could not be recognized." Narcissa later went to the door to look out; she was shot by a Cayuse man. She died later from a volley of gunshots after she had been coaxed to leave the house. Additional persons killed were Andrew Rodgers, Jacob Hoffman, L. W. Saunders, Walter Marsh,

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Secon ...

and Francis Sager, Nathan Kimball, Isaac Gilliland, James Young, Crocket Bewley, and Amos Sales. Peter Hall, a carpenter who had been working on the house, managed to escape the massacre and reach Fort Walla Walla to raise the alarm and get help. From there he tried to get to

but never arrived. It is speculated that Hall drowned in the Columbia River or was caught and killed. Chief "Beardy" tried in vain to stop the massacre, but did not succeed. He was found crying while riding toward the Waiilatpu Mission. Tiloukaikt and Tomahas

The Cayuse took 54 missionaries as captives and held them for ransom, including Mary Ann Bridger and the five surviving Sager children. Several of the prisoners died in captivity, including Helen Mar Meek, mostly from illness such as the measles. Henry and Eliza Spalding's daughter, also named Eliza, was staying at Waiilatpu when the massacre occurred. The ten-year-old Eliza, who was conversant in the

Cayuse language The Cayuse language (''Cailloux, Willetpoos'') is an extinct unclassified language formerly spoken by the Cayuse Native American tribe in the U.S. state of Oregon. The Cayuse name for themselves was ''Liksiyu'' (see Aoki 1998). Classification ...

, served as interpreter during the captivity. She was returned to her parents by

Peter Skene Ogden Peter Skene Ogden (alternately Skeene, Skein, or Skeen; baptised 12 February 1790 – 27 September 1854) was a British-Canadian fur trader and an early explorer of what is now British Columbia and the Western United States. During his many expedi ...

, an official of

. One month following the massacre, on December 29, on orders from Chief Factor James Douglas, Ogden arranged for an exchange of 62 blankets, 62 cotton shirts, 12 Hudson's Bay rifles, 22 handkerchiefs, 300 loads of ammunition, 15

fathom A fathom is a unit of length in the imperial and the U.S. customary systems equal to , used especially for measuring the depth of water. The fathom is neither an International Standard (SI) unit, nor an internationally-accepted non-SI unit. Hi ...

s of tobacco for the return of the 49 surviving prisoners. The Hudson's Bay Company never billed the American settlers for the ransom, nor did the latter ever offer cash payment to the company. Seven Survivors of Whitman Massacre

Trial

A few years later, after further violence in what would become known as the

, some of the settlers insisted that the matter was still unresolved. The new governor, General Mitchell Lambertsen, demanded the surrender of those who carried out the Whitman mission killings. The head chief attempted to explain why they had killed the whites, and that the

that followed had resulted in a greater loss of his own people than the number killed at the mission. The explanation was not accepted. Eventually, tribal leaders Tiloukaikt and Tomahas, who had been present at the original incident, and three additional Cayuse men consented to go to Oregon City (then capital of Oregon), to be tried for murder.

Oregon Supreme Court The Oregon Supreme Court (OSC) is the highest state court in the U.S. state of Oregon. The only court that may reverse or modify a decision of the Oregon Supreme Court is the Supreme Court of the United States.Orville C. Pratt presided over the trial, with U.S. Attorney Amory Holbrook as the prosecutor. In the trial, the five Cayuse who had surrendered used the defense that it is tribal law to kill the medicine man who gives bad medicine. After a lengthy trial, the Native Americans were found guilty; Hiram Straight reported the verdict as foreman of the jury of twelve. Newly appointed Territorial Marshal

Joseph Meek Joseph Lafayette "Joe" Meek (February 9, 1810 – June 20, 1875) was a pioneer, mountain man, law enforcement official, and politician in the Oregon Country and later Oregon Territory of the United States. A trapper involved in the fur trad ...

, seeking revenge for the death of his daughter Helen, was also involved with the process. The verdict was controversial because some observers believed that witnesses called to testify had not been present at the killings. On June 3, 1850, the

Cayuse Five The Cayuse Five were five members of the Native American tribe, the Cayuse of Oregon who were hanged for murder, in 1850. Their names were Clokomas, Isiaasheluckas, Kiamasumkin, Telakite, and Tomahas—note how these names are spelled varies ...

, Tiloukaikt, Tomahas, Kiamasumpkin, Iaiachalakis, and Klokomas, were publicly hanged. Isaac Keele served as the hangman. An observer wrote, "We have read of heroes of all times, never did we read of, or believe, that such heroism as these Indians exhibited could exist. They knew that to be accused was to be condemned, and that they would be executed in the civilized town of Oregon city ... "

Anniversary remembrance

''How the West was Won: A Pioneer Pageant'', was performed in

on June 6–7, 1923, and again on May 28–29, 1924. Originally conceived by

Whitman College Whitman College is a private liberal arts college in Walla Walla, Washington. The school offers 53 majors and 33 minors in the liberal arts and sciences, and it has a student-to-faculty ratio of 9:1. Whitman was the first college in the Pacifi ...

President, Stephen Penrose, as an event marking the 75th anniversary of the Whitman Massacre, the Pageant quickly gained support throughout the greater Walla Walla community. It was produced as a theatrical spectacle that was allegorical in nature and spoke to prevalent social themes of the frontier period, such as

manifest destiny Manifest destiny was a cultural belief in the 19th century in the United States, 19th-century United States that American settlers were destined to expand across North America. There were three basic tenets to the concept: * The special vir ...

. The Whitman Massacre was presented as a small but significant part of a production in four movements: "The White Man Arrives," "The Indian Wars," "The Building of Walla Walla," and "The Future." The production included 3,000 volunteers from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. The Pageant was directed by

Percy Jewett Burrell Percy Jewett Burrell ( – ) was an American author and director of historical and civic pageants. Known for his skills in oratory and elocution, he also taught public speaking and drama, and was known as a "public reciter." A native and lif ...

. "The pageant of today is the Drama of our Democracy!" declared Burrell. He praised the merits of the pageant, citing "solidarity," "communal rtistry" and "spirit." The pageant's success was due, in part to the popularity of the theatrical form during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which held certain commonalities with other spectacular events, such as

world's fair A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition or an expo, is a large international exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specif ...

s and the arcades. These commonalities include a large number of actor/participants, multiple stage/tableaux settings, and the propagation of ideological concerns. The Pageant contributed to a narrative that divine providence had ensured the success of European settlers over Native Americans in the conquest of western lands. Situated in Eastern Washington 250 miles east of the ports of

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

and

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

, Walla Walla was not an easy location to access in 1923–24. But local businesses worked with the Chamber of Commerce to provide special train service to the area, which included "sleeping car accommodations for all who wish to join the party", for a round-trip fare of $24.38. Arrangements were made for the train to park near the amphitheater until the morning after the final performance, "thus giving the excursionists a hotel on wheels during their stay.""Seattle to Join Sister City in Big Celebration", ''Seattle Times'', 18 May 1924 The Automobile Club of Western Washington encouraged motorists to take the drive over

Snoqualmie Pass Snoqualmie Pass is a mountain pass that carries Interstate 90 (I-90) through the Cascade Range in the U.S. state of Washington. The pass summit is at an elevation of , on the county line between Kittitas County and King County. Snoqualmie Pass ...

because of good road conditions. "We have been informed that the maintenance department of the State Highway Commission is arranging to put scraper crews on all the gravel road stretches of the route next week and put a brand new surface on the road for the special benefit of the pageant tourists." The Pageant brought 10,000 tourists to Walla Walla each year, including regional dignitaries such as Oregon Governor Walter E. Pierce and Washington Governor Louis F. Hart.

Legacy and myths

Recent scholarship has helped to understand the origins of myths regarding the Whitman Massacre. In 2021,

published "Murder at the Mission" to explore how the Whitman massacre myth was created by an erratic, self-promoting Henry Harmon Spalding who avoided the massacre. Although Spalding had "periodic bouts of irrationality" and "fellow missionaries wrote countless letters about his erratic, spiteful, and annoying behavior," he was able to persuade the US Senate to print an official pamphlet in 1871 about Whitman. Spalding falsely claimed that Whitman had in 1842 travelled by horse across the country to the White House to warn president John Tyler of a British, Catholic, and Native American plot to "steal" Oregon. He also claimed that the British and Catholics had persuaded the Cayuses to kill Whitman. These myths were debunked in 1901 but Washington state still sent Whitman’s statue to the U.S. Capitol in 1953. In 2021,

discontinued the nickname "the missionaries" for its athletes. Colleges and towns have debated removal of statues of Whitman. The city of

(WA) is considering removal of the statue, while the statue of Whitman in Statuary Hall in the

US Capitol The United States Capitol, often called The Capitol or the Capitol Building, is the seat of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, which is formally known as the United States Congress. It is located on Capitol Hill ...

was removed and replaced by a statue honoring tribal treaty activist Billy Frank Jr. in 2021. After some persuasion by Chuck Sams, the first Native American director of the National Park Service (NPS), Whitman College announced that they will offer five full scholarships to students from the Umatilla Reservation where Cayuse Tribal members live.

Whitman Mission National Historic Site Whitman Mission National Historic Site is a United States National Historic Site located just west of Walla Walla, Washington, at the site of the former Whitman Mission at Waiilatpu. On November 29, 1847, Dr. Marcus Whitman, his wife Narcissa ...

was established in 1936 to preserve the location of the mission and surrounding land. In 1997, the NPS stopped referring to the historical event as the "Whitman massacre" calling it the "Tragedy at Waiilatpu" in an attempt to more neutrally and holistically describe not only the murder of the Whitmans, but the events that led to it, and the trial of the Cayuse people. Numerous scholars have used the NPS terminology and written about the incidents at length in an attempt to re-frame descriptions of the events more objectively.

References

* William Henry Gray, ''A History of Oregon, 1792–1849, drawn from personal observation and authentic information ... '', Harris and Holman: 1870, pp. 464
MOA

External links

* ttp://www.trailtribes.org/umatilla/making-treaties.htm Walla Walla Treaty Council, 1855* * {{Authority control Conflicts in 1847 1847 in Oregon Country November 1847 events Massacres in 1847 1847 murders in the United States Oregon Territory Pre-statehood history of Washington (state) Massacres by Native Americans Cayuse War Oregon Country National Historic Sites of the United States Walla Walla County, Washington Oregon Trail