Marcus and Narcissa
Whitman, a married Upstate
New York couple, set up a
mission within the Cayuse Indian territory in the
Walla Walla valley. Whitman tended to the sick whites and indians alike. In 1847, an outbreak of measles hit the
community and many of the Cayuse blamed the
doctor who could not cure them. On Nov. 29, 1847, a faction of
Cayuse Indians seized the Whitman Mission, killing 13 people and taking 46 others captive for a month until they were ransomed for
blankets,
guns and tobacco.
It was a pivotal event in
Northwest history. Known as the
Whitman Massacre, it provoked anger and fear among white settlers, who clamored for the recognition of the Northwest as U.S. territory (originally the
Oregon Territory) and the posting of
federal troops to the region. Ensuing battles between white settlers and Indians eventually led to treaties that stripped the
natives of much of their land and confined them to
reservations.