Cayuse War

The Cayuse War was an armed conflict that took place in the northwestern United States between 1848 and 1855 between the Cayuse people of the region and the United States Government and local white settlers.

In 1836, two missionaries named Marcus and Narcissa Whitman founded a mission among the Cayuse Indians at Waillatpu, six miles west of present-day Walla Walla, Washington. In addition to evangelizing, the missionaries established schools and grist mills and introduced crop irrigation. Their work advanced slowly until in 1842, Marcus Whitman convinced the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to provide support. Returning the following year, he joined approximately 1,000 settlers traveling to Oregon Territory.

The sudden influx of white settlers led to an escalation of tension between natives and settlers, which owed much to cultural misunderstandings and mutual hostilities. For instance, the Cayuse believed that plowing the ground was disrespectful to the earth goddess; the settlers, as agriculturalists, naturally did not accept this. The Cayuse expected payment from wagon trains passing through their territory and eating the wild food on which the tribespeople depended; the settlers did not understand this and instead drove away the men sent to exact payment, in the belief that they were merely "beggars". The settlers brought diseases with them; the Cayuse suspected that Whitman – a practising physician whom they saw as a shaman – was responsible, using magic to poison them to make way for new immigrants.

In 1847, the Cayuse were decimated by an epidemic of measles which killed half the population, a disaster blamed on the "magic" of Marcus Whitman. Seeking revenge, Cayuse tribesmen attacked the Whitmans' mission on November 29, 1847. Fourteen whites were killed, including the Whitmans. Most of the buildings at Waiilatpu were destroyed. (The site is now a National Historic Site). 53 women and children were held captive for weeks before eventually being released.

This event, which became known as the Whitman Massacre, started the Cayuse War. In 1848 a force of over 500 militiamen, led by fundamentalist clergyman Cornelius Gilliam and supported by the United States Army, marched against the Cayuse and other native inhabitants of central Oregon. The Cayuse initially refused to make peace and raided isolated settlements. However, they were unable to put up an effective opposition to the firepower of their opponents and were driven into hiding in the Blue Mountains.

In 1850, the tribe handed over five members (Tiloukaikt, Tomahas, Klokamas, Isaiachalkis, and Kimasumpkin) to be tried for the murder of the Whitmans. All five Cayuse were convicted by a military commission and hanged on June 3, 1850.

This did not end the conflict, though, and sporadic bloodshed considered for another five years until the Cayuse were finally defeated in 1855. They were subsequently placed on a reservation with the Umatilla people, with their numbers much reduced and most of their tribal lands confiscated.

The war had significant long-term consequences for the region. It opened the Cayuse territories to white settlement, but wrecked relations between whites and the native tribes and set the scene for a series of fresh wars over the following 40 years.

References

• Timeline: Native Americans in the Inland Northwest: Wars and Treaties
• "Sacajawea's Dual Legacy: Heroine In Discovery, Catalyst In Conquest", The Oregonian, July 23, 1993

External links

• Whitman Mission National Historical Site