A Tragedy

Is This Marcus Whitman?

On a cold morning of December 1, 1847, Father John Baptiste Brouillet set out from his Umatilla Mission to pay a courtesy call on the Marcus Whitmans at Waiilatpu Mission, just west of Walla Walla.      Upon riding into the mission compound, he couldn't believe his eyes. Strewn upon the ground and surrounded by burned buildings lay the bodies of Dr. Marcus Whitman, his wife Narcissa, nine other men and two teenage boys. Huddled together near them were women and children staring at the dead with terror-stricken eyes. They were captives of the Cayuse Indians. Enlisting the aid of Joe Stanfield, a French-Canadian who escaped capture because he was not an American, the victims were buried in a wagon box nearby. The oldest three captives became wives of various Indian chiefs. The rest, 47 in all, were removed to nearby Indian camps.      One of the captives, Eliza Spalding, 10 years of age, and daughter of served as an interpreter for the whites and Indians. She said that the Indians believed Dr. Whitman was poisoning them to get their land and horses. Over 50 percent of the tribe had died from a measles epidemic.

     Father John B. Brouillet sped back toward his Umatilla Mission to intercept the Rev. H. Spalding, who was on his way to Waiilatpu to visit his daughter and the Whitmans. Down the trail Brouillet met Rev. Spalding and told him of the massacre, warning that the Indians were looking for him. Spalding turned his horse to the east, toward his mission at Lapwai, riding only at night to escape detection. During the second night on his 60 mile trip, his horse was spooked and ran away, leaving him afoot, with an injured leg. Upon reaching the Snake River, Spalding found a canoe and paddled across. At the Clearwater River he did the same. Nearing his home at Lapwai he encountered friendly Nez Perce Indians, who bathed him, bandaged his injured leg, fed him and put him to bed. They assured him of the safety of Mrs. Spalding and the three small children. Later the family escaped to the Willamette Valley in Oregon.
     Peter Skene Ogden, a Hudson Bay trapper, and 16 other Hudson Bay men negotiated the release of the captive children in December of 1847.
     On January 1, 1848, a ransom of blankets, shirts, guns, ammunition, and tobacco was paid by the Hudson Bay Company, at a cost of $500. Of the 14 Indians involved in the massacre, five were hung. But the ring leader, Joe Lewis, a half-breed from Maine, escaped to Montana, only to be killed later in a shootout.
     The Lapwai Mission in Idaho, headed by the Rev. Spalding, developed an irrigation system to water the first potatoes and started a saw mill and a grist mill. A school, with over 100 pupils, was aided by a printing press sent over from the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii), a children's primer, a hymn book, a code of laws for the Nez Perce, a translation of the Gospel of Matthew, and the first Nez Perce dictionary and grammar book. Another gift from friends in the Sandwich Islands were five ewes and three bucks to start a sheep industry.
     Historians may argue as to whether or not the Whitman Mission at Waiilatpu and the Spalding Mission at Lapwai were successful. The Nez Perce didn't have a desire to develop agriculture, but they were interested in livestock and horse raising.
     Spalding had strict rules, and would hand out severe punishments for stealing, or even missing church. The French-Canadian Catholic priests drew many followers. Spalding's fellow protestant leaders didn't think much of his idea of supplying material good to the Indians, such as cattle, garden seeds and hoes, to get them interested in agriculture. They reported his actions to the Board of Foreign Missions in Boston, which reprimanded him for not paying more attention to the spiritual needs of the Indians. The recession of 1837 cut off all financial aid to the missionaries from the Missionary Board.

The Whitmans had less success with the Cayuse Indians at Waiilatpu. Narcissa opened a school for orphans of the Oregon Trail emigrants. These children had no place to go, so were boarded at the mission. Dr. Whitman tried to teach the Indians how to raise wheat, but they weren't interested. With the wheat he did manage to raise, he made flour, which was sold to the Oregon Trail emigrants at exorbitant prices. They refused to pay his high prices, and by-passed his mission by taking a shortcut to Oregon City.      The northwest came under United States rule after a treaty was signed with England in June of 1846, designating the 49th parallel as the boundary line with Canada. Oregon Territory was formed in 1848 and included Washington, Oregon, Idaho, parts of Montana and Wyoming. Washington was separated from Oregon in 1851; Idaho, by Act of Congress in March 1863; Montana in 1864 and Wyoming followed in 1868. Congressional candidates visited the northwest Territory of Washington in 1861, discussing how to divide it. Natural phenomenon was considered in establishing the boundaries, with the Columbia River on the south and the mountains in the east. The House of Representatives designated the new territory as Montana, but Senator Wilson of Massachusetts proposed an amendment changing it to Idaho. Perhaps the name came from Idaho Springs, Colorado. Or some congressman noticed a steamer on the Columbia River named "Idaho." No one knows how the western boundary of Idaho got 40 miles west of the mountains. At that time it was decided that Lewiston would be the capitol of Idaho.

Is This Narcissa Whitman?