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94-632: Van Belle received a bachelor's degree in physics from Whitman College in 1990, a master's degree in physics from The Johns Hopkins University in 1993, and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Wyoming in 1996. While at Whitman College, he initiated as a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity. After schooling, van Belle took a position at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as an instrument architect for NASA 's Keck Interferometer , and later joined

188-456: 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 Fort Vancouver 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

282-690: A century or more and having the first chapters in the Pacific Northwest . Some claim that around 33% of students are involved in the Greek system. KWCW 90.5 FM is a Class A radio station owned and operated by the Whitman Students' Union , the Associated Students of Whitman College (ASWC). "K-dub" as it is known to students, is located inside the Reid Campus Center on Whitman Campus. At

376-485: A defense of the student's senior thesis, or is one or multiple exams of material the student is expected to have learned during their major. The written exam is either a GRE subject test or a test composed by the department. For students who are interested in foreign policy , Whitman is one of 16 institutions participating in the two-year-old Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship program. The State Department pays for fellows to obtain their master's degree at

470-468: 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". The board said that the natives were "not much inclined to change their mode of life ... " During

564-488: A hotel on wheels during their stay." The Automobile Club of Western Washington encouraged motorists to take the drive over 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

658-641: A junior, and was named NWC Player of the Year. The club-sport-level Whitman cycling team has won the DII National Championships for two years, and four times in six years, making them the athletic team at Whitman with the most national championships. The women's ultimate team, also a club sports team, finished second to Stanford in Division I play in 2016. The football program began in 1892 and ended in March 1977;

752-433: 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 . 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

846-497: A measles epidemic, was not trying to save them but to poison them. The Columbia Plateau tribes believed that the doctor, or shaman , 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 Company had injected strychnine into

940-539: A party to such provocations. 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

1034-557: A power of 160 watts, the station's range is approximately 15 miles (24 km), broadcasting as well as streaming online Whitman Massacre The Whitman massacre (also known as the Whitman killings and the Tragedy at Waiilatpu ) was the killing of American missionaries Marcus and Narcissa Whitman , along with eleven others, on November 29, 1847. They were killed by a small group of Cayuse men who suspected that Whitman had poisoned

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1128-629: A prep school, it might survive as the area's only college. Alexander Jay Anderson, the former president of the Territorial University (now the University of Washington), came to turn the institution into a college and become its president. After modeling the institution after New England liberal arts colleges, Anderson opened the school, Whitman College , on September 4, 1882 ( Marcus Whitman 's birthday) with an enrollment of 60 students and three senior faculty (Anderson, his wife and son). In 1883,

1222-471: 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

1316-408: A small liberal arts institution, albeit with increased focus on co-curricular activities. Penrose iterated the school's purpose "to be a small college, with a limited number of students to whom it will give the finest quality of education". In 1920 Phi Beta Kappa installed a chapter, the first for a Northwest college, and Whitman had its first alum Rhodes Scholar . During World War II , Whitman

1410-751: A student-to-faculty ratio of 9:1. Founded as a seminary by a territorial legislative charter in 1859, the school became a four-year degree-granting institution in 1882 and abandoned its religious affiliation in 1907. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities and competes athletically in the NCAA Division III as a member of the Northwest Conference . Alumni have received 1 Nobel Prize in physics, 1 Presidential Medal of Freedom , 5 Rhodes Scholarships , and 93 Fulbright Fellowships . In 1859, soon after

1504-459: A wide range of competing perspectives on the politics of immigration, border enforcement, and globalization. Since 1982, "Whitman in China" provides Whitman alumni the opportunity to teach English at Northwestern Polytechnical University , Shantou University , or Yunnan University . Participants receive an immersion experience in urban Chinese culture, where they can witness the rapid modernization of

1598-538: Is considering removal of the statue, while in 2021, Governor Jay Inslee signed legislation to remove and replace the statue of Whitman in Statuary Hall with a statue honoring tribal treaty activist Billy Frank Jr. 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

1692-414: Is noted for a strong science program . Its three most popular majors, based on 2021 graduates, were: Biological and Biomedical Sciences (33), Research and Experimental Psychology (32), and Economics (30). In early 2021, Whitman president Kathleen Murray proposed substantial cuts to a number of social science, humanities, arts, and other academic programs in anticipation of a $ 3.5 million budget deficit for

1786-559: Is used for academic and social retreats. Whitman College focuses solely on undergraduate studies in the liberal arts. All students must take a two-semester course their first year, Encounters, which examines cultural interactions throughout history and gives students a grounding in the liberal arts. Students choose from courses in 48  major fields and 34 minor fields and have wide flexibility in designing independent study programs, electing special majors, and participating in internships and study-abroad programs. In addition, Whitman

1880-516: The American West . During every other fall semester since 2002, 21 students leave Walla Walla to travel throughout the interior West for field meetings with a variety of leading figures in conservation, ecology, environmental writing, and social justice. Whitman also offers "The U.S.-Mexico Border Program" every other June. The program is based in Arizona and Sonora, Mexico, and exposes students to

1974-641: The Columbia Plateau , but offered material support for their venture regardless. In particular, he allowed the women to reside at Fort Vancouver that winter as the men went to begin work on constructing the Waiilatpu Mission. 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

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2068-557: The International Astronomical Union 's Commission 54 on Optical and Infrared Interferometry, for 2012-2015, after terms as Vice President (2009-2012) and Secretary (2006-2009). Asteroid 25155 van Belle is named for him. 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

2162-449: The NCAA 's Northwest Conference ( Division III ) and fields nine varsity teams each for men and women. More than 20 percent of students participate in a varsity sport. In addition, 70 percent of the student body participates in intramural and club sports. These sports include rugby union , water polo , lacrosse , dodgeball , and nationally renowned cycling and ultimate teams. In 2016,

2256-651: The Rocky Mountains into portions of the modern states of Idaho , Oregon , and Washington to locate potential mission locations. Parker hired a translator from Pierre-Chrysologue Pambrun , manager of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) trading post Fort Nez Percés . 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. During specific negotiations over what became

2350-574: The Umatilla Reservation where Cayuse Tribal members live. Whitman Mission National Historic Site 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

2444-574: The Whitman Massacre . While at the site, Eells became determined to establish a "monument" to his former missionary colleagues in the form of a school for pioneer boys and girls. Eells obtained a charter for Whitman Seminary , a pre-collegiate school, from the territorial legislature. From the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, he acquired the Whitman mission site. Eells soon moved to

2538-624: The Whitman Mission , six miles from the site of the present-day city of Walla Walla, Washington , Parker told the assembled Cayuse men that: I do not intend to take your lands for nothing. After the Doctor [Whitman] is come, [ sic ] 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

2632-486: 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 and Portland , Walla Walla

2726-439: The 1890s increased the institution's financial worries and lost Eaton his backing, leading to his resignation in 1894. Reverend Stephen Penrose , an area Congregational minister and former trustee, became president of the college and brought the school back to solvency by establishing Whitman's endowment with the aid of D. K. Pearsons, a Chicago philanthropist. By popularizing Marcus Whitman 's life and accomplishments (including

2820-595: The 200 Cayuse in his medical care during an outbreak of measles that included the Whitman household. The killings occurred at the Whitman Mission at the junction of the Walla Walla River and Mill Creek in what is now southeastern Washington near Walla Walla . The massacre became a decisive episode in the U.S. settlement of the Pacific Northwest , causing the United States Congress to take action declaring

2914-407: The 2021–2022 academic year, prompting criticism from students, faculty, and alumni. Degrees are awarded after successful completion of senior "comprehensive exams". These exams vary depending on the students' primary focus of study, but commonly include some combination of (i) a senior thesis, (ii) written examination, and (iii) oral examination. The oral examination is either

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3008-407: 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 to process any wheat produced. Whitman believed that a mill would be another incentive for the Cayuse nation to stay near Waiilaptu. To allow him some freedom from secular tasks, Whitman began to ask that

3102-736: The Cayuse for how exchanges and dialogue with whites would operate. Primarily the early Euro-Americans engaged in the North American fur trade and the maritime fur trade . 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 North West Company , and the Hudson's Bay Company , regularized economic and cultural exchanges, including gift giving. Interactions were not always peaceful. Native Americans suspected that

3196-473: 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

3290-477: The Cayuse was the missionaries' use of poisons. John Young, an immigrant from the United States, reported two cases in particular that strained relations. 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

3384-484: The Class of 2023 (enrolling Fall 2019), Whitman received 4,823 applications and accepted 2,697 (55.9%), with 425 enrolling. The middle 50% range of SAT scores for enrolling freshmen was 630-710 for evidence-based reading and writing, and 610-740 for math. The middle 50% ACT score range was 25-31 for math, 30-35 for English, and 28-33 for the composite. For 2020, students of color (including non-citizens) made up 36.8% of

3478-601: 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. Samuel Parker and Marcus Whitman journeyed overland in 1835 from

3572-625: The French, Spanish, or German languages. These houses, like most of the residential architecture of Walla Walla, are in the Victorian or Craftsman style. In addition to property in Walla Walla, the college also has about 22,000 acres (89 km ) of other land holdings – mainly in the form of wheat farms in Eastern Washington and Oregon. Of special note: the Johnston Wilderness Campus, which

3666-853: The MATISSE instrument of the VLTI. Since August 2011 he has been a member of the astronomer faculty at Lowell Observatory . In May 2017 he was appointed the Director of the Navy Precision Optical Interferometer (NPOI), and after a one-year tenure became Chief Scientist for the facility. NPOI is a joint program between partners Lowell Observatory, the Naval Research Laboratory , and the US Naval Observatory . van Belle utilized near-infrared astronomical interferometers to measure

3760-749: The Michelson Science Center (now NASA Exoplanet Science Institute ) at Caltech in 2003. He has participated in the commissioning of the Palomar Testbed Interferometer , and the CHARA Array . In 2007, he became a member of the astronomy faculty at the European Southern Observatory (ESO), and instrument scientist for the PRIMA instrument of ESO's VLTI facility; later in early 2011 he was also appointed instrument scientist for

3854-523: The United States military declared that the land east of the Cascade Mountains was open for settlement by American pioneers, Cushing Eells traveled from the Willamette Valley to Waiilatpu, near present-day Walla Walla, where 12 years earlier, Congregationalist missionaries Marcus Whitman and Narcissa Whitman , along with 12 others were killed by a group of Cayuse Indians during

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3948-535: The Waiilatpu farm, earning Whitman's enmity as the horses destroyed the maize 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

4042-592: The Walla Walla Valley. The office that emerged, the Student Engagement Center (SEC), houses community service and career services in one place. Students and alumni can get assistance with resumes, cover letters, networking, internships, interviews, grad school applications, and civic engagement in the SEC. Whitman's admission selectivity is considered "more selective" by U.S. News & World Report . For

4136-407: The Whitman Mission. 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

4230-514: 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 of being

4324-590: The Whitman mission killings. The head chief attempted to explain why they had killed the whites and that the Cayuse War 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 justice Orville C. Pratt presided over

4418-445: The Whitmans found Narcissa's haughtiness and Marcus' refusal to hold sermons in the mission household to be rude. 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

4512-589: The [Pacific] coast 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." 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 ministers later claimed that

4606-535: 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. The rival missionaries competed for the attention of Cayuse noble Tawatoy . 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

4700-628: The agreement, insisting that the land had been granted to him free of charge. 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. In particular,

4794-521: 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 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 in 1840, because he thought it would allow "the Catholics to unite all

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4888-532: 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 and Francis Sager , Nathan Kimball, Isaac Gilliland, James Young, Crocket Bewley, and Amos Sales. Peter Hall,

4982-572: The college adopted the new mascot for the school and its athletes of the "Blues", named after the local mountain range . Whitman's athletic teams had formerly used the nickname "Missionaries". As a junior in 2012–13, basketball player Ben Eisenhardt led the Northwest Conference (NWC) in scoring (442 points), became the first Missionary to be named to the National Association of Basketball Coaches Division 3 All-American Third Team as

5076-475: The college into an advanced technical and science center. To aid fundraising, Penrose abandoned affiliation with the Congregational Church, and became unaffiliated with any denomination. The prep school was closed and fraternities and sororities were introduced to the campus. Ultimately, this program was unable to raise enough capital; in 1912, the plan was abandoned and Whitman College returned to being

5170-399: The conversation, saying he had warned the Cayuse several times of the tainted meat. Measles was an epidemic around Sutter's Fort in 1846, when a party of primarily Walla Wallas were there. They carried the contagion to Waiilatpu as they ended the second Walla Walla expedition , and it claimed lives among their party. Shortly after the expedition reached home, the disease appeared among

5264-676: 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, Whitman College discontinued the nickname "the missionaries" for its athletes. Colleges and towns have debated removal of statues of Whitman. The city of Walla Walla (WA)

5358-549: The country. At the same time, Whitman alumni give Chinese university students the rare chance to study with an English native speaker. Whitman also offers a large range of year- or semester-long off-campus study programs - 88 programs across 40 countries, and a few short-term, faculty-led programs. In 2010, under the leadership of (former) President George Bridges, Whitman centralized and integrated various programs intended to help students connect their in-class learning to off-campus work, volunteer, and internship opportunities in

5452-590: 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 , 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

5546-482: The false claim that the missionary had been pivotal in the annexation by the United States of Oregon Territory ), Penrose was able to gain support and resources for the college. Under his leadership, the faculty was strengthened and the first masonry buildings, Billings Hall and the Whitman Memorial Building, were constructed. In 1907, Penrose began a plan called "Greater Whitman" which sought to transform

5640-469: 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

5734-431: 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

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5828-481: 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 . 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

5922-479: 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 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

6016-475: The incoming class; international students were 8.8% of enrolling freshmen. In May 2022, Whitman College announced a $ 10 million donation made in memory of long-time professor of 35 years J.Walter Weingart. The donation is set to fund full scholarships for all in-state students with financial need. The J. Waler and Katherine Weingart opportunity scholarship will begin distribution in 2023 and will annually support 500 in-state students. Whitman holds membership in

6110-461: The land, and they will not sell, but give them to you." 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 Dr. John McLoughlin advised against the missionaries residing on

6204-466: The last winning season was in 1969. Of the 1,579 undergraduate students enrolled in Whitman College in the fall of 2019, 55.3% were female and 44.7% male. There are over one hundred student activities, many of which focus on student activism and social improvement, such as Whitman Direct Action and Global Medicine. Greek life has a long history at Whitman, with many chapters dating back to

6298-409: The main campus, filling the artificially created "Lakum Duckum", the heart of campus and the habitat for many of Whitman's beloved ducks. The oldest building on campus is the administrative center, Whitman Memorial Building, commonly referred to as "Mem". Built in 1899, the hall, like the college, serves as a memorial to Marcus and Narcissa Prentiss Whitman . The building is the tallest on campus and

6392-435: The medicine after Whitman had given it to the tribe. 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 Jim Bridger ), 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

6486-472: 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. The Cayuse men rushed outside and attacked the white men and boys working outdoors. Narcissa found Whitman fatally wounded. 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

6580-509: 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 . Recent scholarship has helped to understand the origins of myths regarding the Whitman Massacre. In 2021, Blaine Harden published "Murder at the Mission" to explore how the Whitman massacre myth

6674-617: 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 Kanakas (who had settled after working as sailors) or whites. To bolster food supplies for

6768-578: The regional Indigenous and Catholic settlers. François Norbert Blanchet and Modeste Demers arrived at Fort Nez Percés on 18 November 1839. This began a long-lasting competition between the ABCFM and the Catholic missionaries to convert the Sahaptin peoples 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

6862-535: 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. A few years later, after further violence in what would become known as the Cayuse War , 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

6956-559: The school received a collegiate charter and began expanding with aid from the Congregational American College and Education Society . Despite local support for Whitman College and help from the Congregational community, financial troubles set in for the school. After losing favor with some of the school's supporters, Anderson left Whitman in 1891 to be replaced by Reverend James Francis Eaton. The continuing recession of

7050-404: The site with his family and began working to establish Whitman Seminary. Despite Eells's desire to locate Whitman Seminary at the Whitman mission site, local pressure and resources provided a way for the school to open in the burgeoning town of Walla Walla. In 1866, Walla Walla's wealthiest citizen, Dorsey Baker , donated land near his house to the east of downtown. A two-story wood-frame building

7144-509: The sizes of hundreds of nearby stars. The first direct measurement of stellar shape was carried out by a team led by him using the Palomar Testbed Interferometer to make observations of the rapidly rotating star Altair . He also contributed to practical considerations of operating astronomical interferometers, particularly regarding considerations of calibration of these complicated instruments . van Belle served as President of

7238-451: The start of 1842, Narcissa reported that the Cayuse leaders "said we must pay them for their land we lived on." 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. The Catholic Church dispatched two priests in 1838 from the Red River colony to minister to the spiritual needs of both

7332-551: The territorial status of the Oregon Country. The Oregon Territory was established on August 14, 1848, to protect the white settlers. The massacre is usually ascribed to the inability of Whitman, a physician, to prevent the measles outbreak. Cayuse in at least three villages held Whitman responsible for the widespread epidemic that killed hundreds of Cayuse while leaving settlers comparatively unscathed. Some Cayuse accused settlers of poisoning them so they could take their land. In

7426-683: The trial of five Cayuse accused of the killing, they used the defense that it was tribal law to kill the medicine man who gives bad medicine. Today, the Cayuse are one of three tribes comprising the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR). 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

7520-472: 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 , seeking revenge for

7614-555: The university of their choice in return for three years of service as a Foreign Service Officer. Whitman has a number of alumni who serve in diplomatic corps . Whitman also offers combined programs in conjunction with several institutions throughout the United States: Whitman offers a "Semester in the West" program, a field study program in environmental studies , focusing on ecological, social, and political issues confronting

7708-431: 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 ... " In 1838, Whitman wrote about his plans to begin altering

7802-399: 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

7896-578: The whites had power over the new diseases that they suffered. Reports from the period note that members of the Umpqua , Makah , and Chinookan 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 . Historian Cameron Addis recounted that after 1840, much of

7990-443: 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. An additional point of contention between Whitman and

8084-401: 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. Also, the headman gave the Catholics a small house which Pambrun had built for him, for their use for religious services. After Demers left

8178-490: Was conversant in the Cayuse language , served as interpreter during the captivity. She was returned to her parents by Peter Skene Ogden , an official of Hudson's Bay Company . 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, and 15 fathoms of tobacco for

8272-466: 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

8366-477: Was directed by Percy Jewett Burrell . "The pageant of today is the Drama of our Democracy!" declared Burrell. He praised the merits of the pageant, citing "solidarity," "communal [artistry]," 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 fairs and

8460-458: 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

8554-638: Was one of 131 colleges and universities nationally that took part in the V-12 Navy College Training Program which offered students a path to a Navy commission. Whitman's 117 acre campus is located in downtown Walla Walla, Washington. Most of the campus is centered around a quad, which serves as the location for intramural field sports. Around this, Ankeny Field, sits Penrose Library, Olin Hall and Maxey Hall, and two residence halls, Lyman and Jewett. South of Ankeny Field, College Creek meanders through

8648-714: Was placed on the National Historical Register of Historic Places in 1974. The oldest residence halls on campus, Lyman House and Prentiss Hall, were built in 1924 and 1926. Over the next fifty years, the college built or purchased several other buildings to house students, including the former Walla Walla Valley General Hospital, which was transformed into North Hall in 1978. In addition to the nine residence halls, many students choose to live in one of eleven "Interest Houses," run for sophomore, juniors, and seniors committed to specific focuses such as community service, fine arts, environmental studies, multicultural awareness, or

8742-467: Was quickly erected and classes began later that year. The school's first principal, local Congregational minister Peasly B. Chamberlin, resigned within a year and Cushing Eells was called upon to serve as principal, which he did until 1869. After Eells's resignation in 1869, the school struggled—and often failed—to attract students, pay teachers, and stay open for each term. Whitman's trustees decided in 1882 that while their institution could not continue as

8836-465: Was to be condemned, and that they would be executed in the civilized town of Oregon city ... " How the West was Won: A Pioneer Pageant , was performed in Walla Walla, Washington on June 6–7, 1923, and again on May 28–29, 1924. Originally conceived by Whitman College President, Stephen Penrose, as an event marking the 75th anniversary of the Whitman Massacre, the Pageant quickly gained support throughout

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