Marcus Whitman (September 4, 1802 – November 29, 1847) was an American physician and missionary. He is most well-known for leading American settlers across the Oregon Trail , unsuccessfully attempting to Christianize the Cayuse Indians , and was subsequently killed by the Cayuse Indians in a event known as the 1847 Whitman massacre , over a misunderstanding, resulting in the beginning of the Cayuse war (1847-1855).
38-463: 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, Eliza, and William Gray, founded a mission near present-day Walla Walla, Washington in an effort to convert local Indians to Christianity. In the winter of 1842, Whitman went back east, returning the following summer with the first large wagon train of settlers across
76-685: A Cayuse settlement called Waíilatpu (Why-ee-laht-poo) in the Cayuse language , meaning "People of the Place of the Rye Grass". It was located just west of the northern end of the Blue Mountains . The present-day city of Walla Walla, Washington developed six miles to the east. The settlement was in the territory of both the Cayuse and the Nez Perce tribes . Whitman farmed and provided medical care, while Narcissa set up
114-916: A Tribal member of the Confederate Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, was a Cayuse/Nez Pierce Language instructor who spoke and taught the Nez Pierce language, but also knew small amounts of the Original Cayuse Language that is now extinct. In 1855, the Cayuse joined the Treaty of Walla Walla with the Umatilla and Walla Walla by which the Umatilla Indian Reservation was formed. Since that time, they have officially resided within
152-518: A boarding school for settlers' children. The Cayuse resented the encroachment of white settlers. More significantly, the influx of settlers in the territory brought new infectious diseases to the Indian Tribes, including a severe epidemic of measles in 1847. The Native Americans' lack of immunity to Eurasian diseases resulted in high death rates, with children dying in large numbers. The Whitmans cared for both Cayuse and white settlers, but half of
190-599: A medical doctor in that town. In 1977, he was inducted into Steuben County, New York 's Hall of Fame. Walla Walla has a Marcus Whitman Hotel and Conference Center . In 1953, the state of Washington donated a statue of him by the sculptor Avard Fairbanks to the National Statuary Hall Collection in the United States Capitol , An identical one stands at the edge of the campus of Whitman College . Marcus Whitman's alleged political influence over
228-501: A minister but did not have the money for such schooling. He returned to New York as a young man. He studied medicine for two years with an experienced physician under the form of apprenticeship approved then, and received his degree from Fairfield Medical College in New York. He practiced medicine for a few years in Canada but was interested in going to the west. In 1835, Whitman traveled with
266-599: A school for the Native American children. In 1842, Whitman traveled east, and on his return, he accompanied the first large group of wagon trains west. Known as the "Great Emigration", the 1843 expedition established the viability of the Oregon Trail for later homesteaders. Not having much success with converting the Cayuse, the Whitmans gave more attention to the settlers. They took in children to their own home and established
304-487: Is believed to have become extinct by then. As the members of the three tribes have intermarried, they no longer keep separate population numbers. The Cayuse Indians were located in the Columbia Basin and were nomadic, sometimes moving on a daily basis. They lived in teepees , which many nomadic tribes used for portability. The Cayuse were skilled horsemen, and used horses in hunting. They also used them for their trip over
342-486: Is now called the Cayuse horse . No longer restricted to what they could carry or what their dogs could pull, they moved into new areas, traveling as far east as the Great Plains and as far south as California , to hunt, trade, fight, and capture slaves. Meanwhile, their herds multiplied rapidly, a combination of skillful breeding and periodic raids on other tribes. By the early 1800s, a Cayuse who owned only 15 to 20 horses
380-578: Is preserved as Whitman Mission National Historic Site . While the name is not used much now, the road from Penn Yan, New York to Rushville, New York was formerly called the Marcus Whitman Highway. Fort Whitman (active 1900–1947) located near LaConner, Washington was named for him. The Washington State Legislature has declared the fourth day of September as Marcus Whitman Day. A bronze tablet in Wheeler, New York commemorates his 1828–1835 practice as
418-638: The Nez Perce and had close associations with them. Like the Plains tribes, the Cayuse placed a high premium on warfare and were skilled horsemen. They developed the Cayuse pony . The Cayuse ceded most of their traditional territory to the United States in 1855 by treaty and moved to the Umatilla Reservation, where they have formed a confederated tribe. According to Haruo Aoki (1998), the Cayuse called themselves Liksiyu in their language. Their name Cayuse
SECTION 10
#1732869836515456-571: The Oregon Trail . These new settlers encroached on the Cayuse Indians living near the Whitman Mission and were unsuccessful in their efforts to Christianize the tribe. Following the deaths of many nearby Cayuse from an outbreak of measles, some remaining Cayuse accused Whitman of murder, suggesting that he had administered poison and was a failed shaman . In retaliation, a group of Cayuse killed
494-502: The Rocky Mountains each year to hunt a supply of buffalo to bring back for their families. The men hunted game and fished salmon. The women gathered and picked berries and dug and processed roots. The women also processed the animal skins to make materials for shelter and clothing. The men considered bravery to be an important quality, with brave warriors being held in high esteem. The strongest would be made chief. The Cayuse language
532-622: The Umatilla and the Walla Walla tribes as part of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation . The reservation is located near Pendleton, Oregon , at the base of the Blue Mountains . The Cayuse called themselves the Liksiyu in the Cayuse language . Originally located in present-day northeastern Oregon and southeastern Washington , they lived adjacent to territory occupied by
570-567: The Walla Walla River at age two. As settlers came in increasing numbers, the Whitmans took in eleven orphaned children, including the adoption of the Sager orphans . They also established a kind of boarding school for settlers' children at their mission. On May 25, 1836, the Whitmans, and a group of other missionaries including Henry H. Spalding and Eliza Hart Spalding , joined a caravan of fur traders and traveled west. The fur company caravan
608-514: The 1835 Rocky Mountain Rendezvous . In 1836, Whitman married Narcissa Prentiss , a teacher of physics and chemistry . She had also been eager to travel west as a missionary, but she had been unable to do so as a single woman. They had one daughter, Alice Clarissa, born On March 14, 1837, the first Anglo-American child born in Oregon Country. She was named after her grandmothers. She drowned in
646-449: The Cayuse died and nearly all the Cayuse children perished. Seeing that more whites had survived, the Cayuse blamed the Whitmans for the devastating deaths among their people. The Cayuse tradition held medicine men personally responsible for the patient's recovery. Their despair at the deaths, especially of their children, led the Cayuse under Chief Tiloukaikt to kill the Whitmans in their home on November 29, 1847. Warriors destroyed most of
684-508: The United States and the Cayuse War ensued. Five Cayuse warriors were hanged; see Cayuse Five . The Cayuse put the captives to work together with their members; the adults made clothing for the tribe. They released the hostages after the Hudson's Bay Company brokered an exchange of 62 blankets, 63 cotton shirts, 12 Hudson Bay rifles, 600 loads of ammunition, 7 pounds of tobacco and 12 flints for
722-609: The United States to send settlers to contest claims of British governance. In 1901, Yale University historian Edward Gaylord Bourne convincingly disproved this revision of history, using the historical record to demonstrate that Whitman's trip back east was motivated by his desire to maintain the mission to convert the Native American tribes of the Northwest to Christianity and that he returned with settlers who were Protestant in order to promote (Protestant) Christianity. Narcissa Whitman Too Many Requests If you report this error to
760-534: The United States' claim to the Oregon country, as well as his purported leadership role in the emigration, were greatly exaggerated in the decades following his death, leading to great controversy in popular and academic literature. After Whitman's death, Spalding energetically promoted the idea that Marcus Whitman had traveled east to Washington in order to "save" the Oregon Territory from British control by convincing
798-665: The Walla Walla Valley and seven Cayuse Bands scattered throughout Eastern Oregon and Washington. The Walla Walla River Cayuse Band was called the Pa'cxapu . Other sources name only three distinct regional bands within the Cayuse at the time: two centered on the Umatilla River, and the third on the Walla Walla River. The Cayuse were known for their bravery, and as horsemen. They bred their ponies for speed and endurance, developing what
SECTION 20
#1732869836515836-549: The Whitmans and eleven other settlers on November 29, 1847, an event that came to be known as the Whitman massacre . This led to continuing warfare between settlers and the Cayuse which reduced their numbers further. On September 4, 1802, Whitman was born in Federal Hollow, New York to Beza and Alice Whitman. After Beza's death when Whitman was seven, he was sent to Massachusetts to live with his uncle. Whitman dreamed of becoming
874-583: The Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.150 via cp1114 cp1114, Varnish XID 495390737 Upstream caches: cp1114 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Fri, 29 Nov 2024 08:43:56 GMT Cayuse people The Cayuse are a Native American tribe in what is now the state of Oregon in the United States . The Cayuse tribe shares a reservation and government in northeastern Oregon with
912-425: The buildings at Waiilatpu and killed twelve other white settlers in the community, kidnapping many children and forcibly marrying them in certain cases. The events became known among white settlers as the Whitman massacre . The Cayuse held another 53 women and children captive for a month before releasing them through negotiations. These events, and continued white encroachment, triggered a continuing conflict between
950-511: The missionary Samuel Parker to present-day northwestern Montana and northern Idaho , to minister to bands of the Flathead and Nez Perce nations. During this journey, he treated several fur trappers during an outbreak of cholera . At the end of their stay, he promised the Nez Perce that he would return with other missionaries and teachers to live with them. Parker and Whitman were present for
988-407: The natives were dying from the measles than were the whites. In addition, cultural differences and settler encroachment had caused growing tensions. The Cayuse attacked the missionaries, killing Whitman and his wife Narcissa, and eleven others. They captured 54 European-American women and children and held them for ransom. They destroyed the mission buildings. This attack prompted an armed response by
1026-761: The neighboring Sahaptin -speaking peoples. The Cayuse population was about 500 in the eighteenth century. The Cayuse were a seminomadic tribe and maintained summer and winter villages on the Snake , Tucannon , Walla Walla , and Touchet rivers in Washington, and along the Umatilla , Grand Ronde , Burnt , Powder , John Day River , and from the Blue Mountains to the Deschutes River in Oregon. Historian Verne Ray has identified seventy-six traditional Cayuse Village sites, most temporary, seasonal sites; five separate villages in
1064-640: The next half-century. Whitman is commemorated by Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington , the Wallowa–Whitman National Forest , Mount Rainier 's Whitman Glacier , and numerous schools, including Marcus Whitman Middle School in Port Orchard, Washington; Marcus Whitman Junior High School in Seattle, Washington; and Marcus Whitman Central School in Rushville, New York, his hometown. His mission
1102-514: The reservation's limits. During the mid-twentieth century, some members moved to cities under the Indian Relocation Act of 1956 , an effort to give better access for contemporary jobs. Their number was officially reported as 404 in 1904; this number may be misleading. A count in 1902 found one pure-blooded Cayuse on the reservation. Descendants with ancestry partially of the other tribes may still have identified as Cayuse. The Cayuse language
1140-565: The return of the now 49 surviving prisoners. The Cayuse and many from other nearby tribes such as the Walla Walla Tribe were hunted down by Militias and massacred. The Cayuse eventually lost the war. They were forced to cede their land to the US and shared a reservation with the Umatilla and Walla Walla. By 1851, the Cayuse had long intermarried with the neighboring Nez Percé , with whom they had sheltered; many learned their language. Kathleen Gordon,
1178-452: The settlers and the Cayuse that became known as the Cayuse War . Five Cayuse were hanged for murder. Historians have noted contemporary accounts of competition between the Protestant missionaries and Catholic priests, who had become established with Jesuit missions from Canada and St. Louis, Missouri , as contributing to the tensions. The Roman Catholic priest John Baptiste Brouillet aided
Marcus Whitman - Misplaced Pages Continue
1216-538: The south and east referred to as the Snake people and other tribes such as the Blackfeet over territory and hunting sites. As white settlers moved into their territory in large numbers following the opening of the Oregon Trail in 1842, the Cayuse suffered. Even settlers passing through competed with them for game and water. Crowds of whites invaded the region during the California gold rush beginning in 1848 and when gold
1254-496: The survivors and helped bury the victims. Two days later Brouillet encountered Rev. Henry H. Spalding on his way to the Whitmans', told him what had happened, and warned him that he might be in danger. Spalding later wrote a pamphlet stating forcefully that the Catholic priests, including Father Brouillet, had incited the Cayuse to massacre. Spalding's version of the disaster was printed and reprinted, sometimes at taxpayer expense, for
1292-544: Was considered poor; wealthy families controlled 2,000 or more. Horses improved the range and effectiveness of war parties, making it possible for Cayuses to dominate their sedentary neighbors on the Columbia. They claimed ownership of The Dalles , the great fishery and trade emporium of the Columbia, forcing the weaker bands in that area to pay them tribute in the form of salmon and other goods. They frequently were in conflict fighting with Piute, Shoshone , and Bannock Tribes to
1330-457: Was derived from the French word "cailloux," meaning stones or rocks, adopted by early French Canadian trappers of the area. The name may have referred to the rocky area the tribe inhabited, or it may have been an imprecise rendering of the name they called themselves. The tribe has been closely associated with the neighboring Nez Percé and Walla Walla. The Cayuse language is an isolate , independent of
1368-522: Was discovered in Eastern Oregon in 1862. The tribe gained wide notoriety in the early days of the white settlement of the territory. In 1838, Marcus Whitman and his wife Narcissa established a mission among the Cayuse at Waiilatpu ("Place of the Rye Grass"), a site about seven miles from the present-day city of Walla Walla and about a quarter mile east of where the Cayuse Pásxa winter village
1406-459: Was led by the mountain men Milton Sublette and Thomas Fitzpatrick . The fur traders had seven covered wagons , each pulled by six mules . An additional cart drawn by two mules carried Milton Sublette, who had lost a leg a year earlier and walked on a "cork" one made by a friend. The combined group arrived in time for the fur-traders' annual Rocky Mountain Rendezvous . The group established several missions as well as Whitman's settlement at
1444-399: Was located. In 1847, a measles epidemic, suspected by some to be contracted from white settlers, resulted in high fatalities among the tribe. A small group of Cayuse, after putting Witmans medicine to the test with both sick and non sick individuals, and which all test individuals died, believed the missionaries were deliberately poisoning their native people, since a much higher percentage of
#514485