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95-413: 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 the trial of five Cayuse accused of the killing, they used

190-578: 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

285-555: 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)

380-533: A Native person about religious beliefs or ceremonies is often viewed with suspicion." One example of this is the Apache medicine cord or Izze-kloth whose purpose and use by Apache medicine elders was a mystery to nineteenth century ethnologists because "the Apache look upon these cords as so sacred that strangers are not allowed to see them, much less handle them or talk about them." The term medicine man/woman , like

475-636: 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 the Whitman Mission. The Cayuse took 54 missionaries as captives and held them for ransom including Mary Ann Bridger and

570-416: 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

665-436: 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 the trial, with U.S. Attorney Amory Holbrook as

760-487: 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

855-431: 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

950-556: 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 the agent McLoughlin to complain of

1045-535: 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

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1140-603: A referral. Usually one makes contact through a relative who knows the healer. 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 from 1824 to 1845. He was later known as the "Father of Oregon" for his role in assisting

1235-469: 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

1330-589: A trader and mastered several Indian languages. In 1814, he became a partner in the company. In 1816, McLoughlin was charged with complicity in the massacre at the Red River Colony after the Battle of Seven Oaks . He and all the other parties from the North West Company were exonerated. The Hudson's Bay Company was found culpable by the appointed Royal Commissioner at its trial on October 30, 1818, and in

1425-492: Is a traditional healer and spiritual leader who serves a community of Indigenous people of the Americas . Each culture has its own name in its language for spiritual healers and ceremonial leaders. In the ceremonial context of Indigenous North American communities , " medicine " usually refers to spiritual healing. Medicine people use many practices, including specialized knowledge of Native American ethnobotany . Herbal healing

1520-621: Is a common practice in many Indigenous households of the Americas; however, medicine people often have more in-depth knowledge of using plants for healing or other purposes. The terms medicine people or ceremonial people are sometimes used in Native American and First Nations communities, for example, when Arwen Nuttall ( Cherokee ) of the National Museum of the American Indian writes, "The knowledge possessed by medicine people

1615-536: 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

1710-488: Is not preferred by Native American or First Nations communities. There are many fraudulent healers and scam artists , known as plastic shamans who pose as Native American "shamans", and the Cherokee Nation has had to speak out against these people, even forming a task force to handle the issue. In order to seek help from a medicine person, a person needs to know someone in the community who can vouch for them and provide

1805-603: Is now located beside his home overlooking downtown Oregon City. McLoughlin is featured on the 1925 Fort Vancouver Centennial half dollar designed by Laura Gardin Fraser . In 1953, the state of Oregon donated to the National Statuary Hall Collection a bronze statue of McLoughlin, which is currently displayed at the Capitol Visitor Center . The title "Father of Oregon" was officially bestowed on him by

1900-416: Is privileged, and it often remains in particular families." Native Americans tend to be quite reluctant to discuss issues about medicine or medicine people with non-Indians. In some cultures, the people will not even discuss these matters with American Indians from other tribes. In most tribes, medicine elders are prohibited from advertising or introducing themselves as such. As Nuttall writes, "An inquiry to

1995-467: The 49th parallel , ordered McLoughlin to relocate their regional headquarters to Vancouver Island . McLoughlin, in turn, directed James Douglas to construct Fort Camosun (now Victoria , British Columbia , Canada) in 1843. But McLoughlin, whose life was increasingly connected to the Willamette River Valley, refused to move there. McLoughlin was involved with the debate over the future of

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2090-580: 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

2185-691: The North West Company between Fort George , founded in 1811 by John Jacob Astor 's American Fur Company ) at the mouth of the Columbia River , to Fort William on Lake Superior . In the 1821 merger with the North West Company, the Hudson's Bay Company gained control of North West Company trading posts west of the Rocky Mountains. They established headquarters at Fort George (formerly Astoria). George Simpson , Governor of Hudson's Bay Company, visited

2280-622: The Oregon Country ), and Peter Skene Ogden was appointed to assist him. At the time, the region was under joint occupation of both the United States and Britain pursuant to the Treaty of 1818 . Upon his arrival, McLoughlin determined that the headquarters of the company at Fort Astoria (now Astoria , Oregon ), at the mouth of the Columbia River , was unfit. The York Factory Express trade route had evolved from an earlier express brigade used by

2375-552: The Oregon Country . He advocated an independent nation that would be free of the United States during debates at the Oregon Lyceum in 1842 through his lawyer. This view won support at first and a resolution adopted but was later moved away from in favor of a resolution by George Abernethy of the Methodist Mission to wait on forming an independent country. In 1843, American settlers established their own government, called

2470-614: The Provisional Government of Oregon . A legislative committee drafted a code of laws known as the Organic Law . It included the creation of an executive committee of three, a judiciary, militia, land laws, and four counties. There was vagueness and confusion over the nature of the 1843 Organic Law, in particular, whether it was constitutional or statutory. In 1844, a new legislative committee decided to consider it statutory. The 1845 Organic Law made additional changes, including allowing

2565-633: The Red River colony . In November 1839, Sir George Simpson instructed Duncan Finlayson to begin promoting the PSAC among the Red River colonists. James Sinclair was appointed by Finlayson to guide the mostly Métis settler families to Fort Vancouver. In June 1841, the party left Fort Garry with 23 families consisting of 121 people. When they arrived at Fort Vancouver, they numbered 21 families of 116 people. Fourteen families were relocated to Fort Nisqually , while

2660-603: 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

2755-572: 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

2850-624: 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

2945-485: 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

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3040-540: The 16th-century Christopher and Cosmas . When the British government did not show interest, the castaways were sent to Macau so that they could be returned to Japan. Even that was not possible, as Japan did not allow any outside ships to enter its waters. In 1821, with the merger of HBC and the North West Company , the British Parliament imposed the laws of Upper Canada on British subjects in Rupert’s Land and

3135-707: The American cause in the Oregon Country . In the late 1840s, his general store in Oregon City was famous as the last stop on the Oregon Trail . McLoughlin was born in October 1784 in Rivière-du-Loup , Quebec , and was of Scottish and French Canadian descent. He lived with his great uncle, Colonel William Fraser, for a while as a child. Though baptized Roman Catholic , he was raised Anglican . In his later life, he returned to

3230-503: 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 was baptized at this time and Pierre-Chrysologue Pambrun

3325-406: 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

3420-676: 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

3515-472: 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

3610-420: 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

3705-575: The Columbia Department remained highly profitable, in part due to the ongoing high demand for beaver hats in Europe. John McLoughlin was worried Fort Vancouver would be attacked and plundered of its heavy stock of supplies, due to its proximity to the Willamette Valley , in which there was already an American settlement of some size. By 1825, there were usually two brigades from opposite ends of

3800-596: The Columbia District in 1824–25, journeying from York Factory. He investigated a quicker route than previously used, following the Saskatchewan River and crossing the mountains at Athabasca Pass . This route was thereafter followed by the York Factory Express brigades. McLoughlin built Fort Vancouver as a replacement for Fort George, on the north side of the Columbia River , a few miles upstream from

3895-462: The Columbia District, and gave the authority to enforce those laws to the newly reconfigured Hudson's Bay Company . McLoughlin, as Superintendent of Fort Vancouver , applied the law to British subjects, kept peace with the natives and sought to maintain law and order over American settlers as well. In August 1828, McLoughlin was in charge at Fort Vancouver when American explorer Jedediah Smith , John Turner , Arthur Black, and Richard Leland arrived,

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3990-600: 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

4085-562: The Roman Catholic faith. In 1798, he began to study medicine under Sir James Fisher of Quebec. McLoughlin was granted a licence to practice medicine in Lower Canada (now Quebec) in 1803. He evidently completed his course, as he is widely referred to as "Dr. John McLoughlin". McLoughlin was hired as a physician at Fort William , the inland headquarters and a fur trade post of the North West Company on Lake Superior . There he became

4180-510: The United States had become very strained, and many expected war to break out any time. McLoughlin's aid probably prevented an armed attack on his outpost by the numerous American settlers. The settlers understood that his motives were not purely altruistic, and some resented the assistance, working against him for the rest of his life. As tensions mounted in the Oregon boundary dispute ; Simpson, realizing that border might ultimately be as far north as

4275-533: 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

4370-462: 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 a measles epidemic,

4465-511: 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

4560-538: 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

4655-522: 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,

4750-668: The center of activity in the Pacific Northwest. Every year ships would come from London to drop off supplies and trade goods in exchange for the furs. It was the nexus for the fur trade on the Pacific Coast; its influence reached from the Rocky Mountains to the Hawaiian Islands , and from Russian Alaska into Mexican-controlled California . From Fort Vancouver, at its pinnacle, McLoughlin watched over 34 outposts, 24 ports, six ships, and 600 employees. Under McLoughlin's management,

4845-523: 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 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

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4940-542: The confluence of the Columbia and Willamette Rivers . The site was chosen by Sir George Simpson . The post was opened for business on March 19, 1825. From his Columbia Department headquarters in Fort Vancouver, McLoughlin supervised trade and kept peace with the Indians, inaugurated salmon and timber trade with Mexican-controlled California and Hawaii , and supplied Russian America with produce. Fort Vancouver became

5035-465: 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 the general population around Walla Walla and quickly spread among

5130-623: 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

5225-448: 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. The Morning Astorian Astoria, Oregon · Thursday, March 31, 1881 page 3 Historical facts. Medicine man A medicine man (from Ojibwe mashkikiiwinini ) or medicine woman (from Ojibwe mashkikiiwininiikwe )

5320-468: 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

5415-531: 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 , 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

5510-527: 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,

5605-480: 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

5700-563: The grievances John Sr. held against the company. After resigning from the Hudson's Bay Company in 1846, McLoughlin moved his family south to Oregon City in the Willamette Valley . The Oregon Treaty had been ratified by that time, and the region, now known as the Oregon Territory , was part of the United States. The valley was the destination of choice for settlers streaming in over the Oregon Trail . At his Oregon City store, he sold food and farming tools to settlers. In 1847, McLoughlin

5795-400: 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

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5890-574: The later prosecutions by Lord Selkirk and the successful counter-suits. McLoughlin was instrumental in the negotiations leading to the North West Company's 1821 merger with the Hudson's Bay Company. He was promoted to head the Lac la Pluie district temporarily shortly after the merger. In 1824, the Hudson's Bay Company appointed McLoughlin, already a Chief Factor , as Superintendent of the Columbia Department (roughly parallel to what Americans know as

5985-495: The lucrative fur trade. Two developments in the late 1830s made a reappraisal of Hudson's Bay Company operations in the Columbia Department necessary. Apprehensions about American antagonism rose due to US Senator Lewis F. Linn , who in 1838 called for a naval force to be dispatched to the Columbia River, although the measure never passed. Favorable relations with the Russian-American Company (RAC) were established with

6080-401: 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 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

6175-507: 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

6270-434: 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

6365-471: 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

6460-439: The men portage around falls and unnavigable rapids; in return, the Indians were paid with trade goods. An 1839 report cites the travel time as three months and ten days—almost 26 miles (40 km) per day on average. The brigades used boat, horseback, and backpacks to bring the supplies in and furs out to the forts and trading posts along the route. The Hudson Bay Company officially discouraged settlement because it interfered with

6555-460: 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 the agreement, insisting that the land had been granted to him free of charge. Umtippe returned

6650-434: The only survivors of the massacre of fifteen members of his exploring party by Umpqua people , who lived to the south in Oregon. McLoughlin sent a party headed by Alexander Roderick McLeod to recover Smith's property. In the early 1840s, with the arrival of the first wagon trains via the Oregon Trail , McLoughlin disobeyed company orders and extended substantial aid to the American settlers. Relations between Britain and

6745-474: 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 was created by an erratic, self-promoting Henry Harmon Spalding who avoided

6840-533: The participation of British subjects in the government. Although the Oregon Treaty of 1846 settled the boundaries of US jurisdiction upon all lands south of the 49th parallel, the Provisional Government continued to function until 1849, when the first governor of Oregon Territory arrived. McLoughlin's first child, Joseph, was born in 1809. The name of Joseph's mother is unknown, but it is likely that she

6935-666: 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

7030-534: 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

7125-474: 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 the death of his daughter Helen, was also involved with

7220-564: The remaining seven families were sent to Fort Cowlitz . When three Japanese sailors, among them Otokichi , were shipwrecked on the Olympic Peninsula in 1834, McLoughlin thought they might present an opportunity to open trade with Japan . He sent the three men to London on the Eagle to try to convince the Crown of his plan. They reached London in 1835, probably the first Japanese to do so since

7315-420: The route, ( Fort Vancouver in the Columbia District on the lower Columbia River and the other from York Factory on Hudson Bay ), that set out in spring and passed each other in the middle of the continent. Each brigade consisted of about forty to seventy-five men and two to five specially made boats that traveled at breakneck speed (for the time). These brigades often needed help from Indians, who would help

7410-718: The signing of the RAC-HBC Agreement in 1839. To meet the new commercial obligations and to support British claims in the Oregon Question, the Hudson's Bay Company formally incorporated the Puget Sound Agricultural Company (PSAC) subsidiary in 1840. The new venture, while nominally independent, was administratively included within the Columbia Department. McLoughlin criticized the idea of a fur trading monopoly maintaining agricultural operations, as he felt independent farmers would be efficient. Nonetheless, he

7505-553: 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 the regional Indigenous and Catholic settlers. François Norbert Blanchet and Modeste Demers arrived at Fort Nez Percés on 18 November 1839. This began

7600-456: The term shaman , has been criticized by Native Americans, as well as other specialists in the fields of religion and anthropology. While non-Native anthropologists often use the term shaman for Indigenous healers worldwide, including the Americas, shaman is the specific name for a spiritual mediator from the Tungusic peoples of Siberia , which has been adopted by some Inuit communities but

7695-399: 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

7790-430: 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

7885-479: 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 Whitmans found Narcissa's haughtiness and Marcus' refusal to hold sermons in

7980-582: The village. ) . At the time, the wives of many Hudson's Bay field employees were indigenous, including McLoughlin's own wife. John McLoughlin lost one son to a violent death. John McLoughlin, Jr. had been appointed the second Clerk in Charge at Fort Stikine , only to die in April 1842 at the hands of one of the fort employees, Urbain Heroux , who was charged with his murder but acquitted for lack of evidence, which added to

8075-577: 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

8170-442: 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

8265-712: Was Ojibwe . Around 1810, McLoughlin entered into a relationship with Marguerite Waddens McKay. McKay was the daughter of Jean-Étienne Waddens , who was one of the original partners of the North West Company, and an indigenous woman whose name is unknown. She was the widow of Alexander McKay , a trader killed in the Tonquin incident. Her son Thomas became McLoughlin's stepson. McLoughlin and McKay had four children: John Jr. , Elisabeth, Eloisa, and David. They were legally married in 1842 at Fort Vancouver. McLoughlin's appearance, 6 foot 4 inches (193 cm) tall with long, prematurely white hair, brought him respect; but he

8360-427: Was also generally known for his fair treatment of the people with whom he dealt, whether they were British subjects, U.S. citizens, or of indigenous origin (notwithstanding for example, his asymmetric use of force against the S'Klallam tribe after an earlier raid--an HBC ship under his command fired its cannons into an unrelated village near Port Townsend in the early morning, killing twenty-seven people and leveling

8455-529: Was appointed as the PSAC supervisor. The fertile plains near the Cowlitz River were selected as a suitable location for Cowlitz Farm , the principal PSAC farm. Fort Nisqually was also assigned to the PSAC, where numerous livestock herds were maintained. Several locations were considered for potential farmers, including among the French Canadian and Métis farmers of the Willamette Valley, Scotland , and

8550-476: 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

8645-561: Was given the Knighthood of St. Gregory , bestowed on him by Pope Gregory XVI . He became a U.S. citizen in 1849. McLoughlin's opponents succeeded in inserting a clause forfeiting his land claim in the Donation Land Claim Act of 1850 by Samuel R. Thurston . Although it was never enforced, it embittered the elderly McLoughlin. He served as mayor of Oregon City in 1851, winning 44 of 66 votes. He died of natural causes in 1857. His grave

8740-442: 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 the area in 1840, Whitman preached to assembled Cayuse on several occasions, saying that they were in

8835-458: 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

8930-425: 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

9025-623: 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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