Who really caused the Whitman Massacre? Casandra Rand by:

There are many perspectives on events in history. There were two main perspectives about who caused the whitman massicre. One veiw point is from the cayuse Indians. Both are important. Iwill begin with the whitmans perspective and follow with the cayuse Indians perspective.

According to washington our home text book I found out that in 1831,The reason missionaries came to Oregon Country was because indians requested them from william clark. The Indians wanted to be converted to the whitmans religion.

Marcus and Narcissa whitman started the waiilatpu mission about 7 miles west of walla walla. The Whitman’s were trying to convert the cayuse to christianity. They were also trying to teach them how to farm.

Settlers traveled on the Oregon Trail, which brought them to Oregon Country. The mission is where the settlers would stop and rest. Oregon territory was formed after the cayuse war.

According to Eliza Spalding a 10 year old girl said ‘The doctor was helping some indians get medicine when an Indian hit him on the head with a Tomahock and killed him’. That signaled the attack on the other white people at the mission. The massacre lasted three days.

Between the years Governor Stevens asked the Indians in councils to sign treaties which gave away their land. The Indians had also been put on reservations.

The Indians had a really different perspective about the Whitman Massacre.

4 cayuse Indians traveled to St.. Louis to talk ask william clark to send missionaries, so they could understand the Whiteman and his gods because they had lots of helpful tools like knives, axes, and carvings.

The whitmans came and built a mission. According to the Indians the whitmans were trying to convert their ideas with the indians ideas. The indians did not like what the missionaries were teaching them and thought that they had too many rules. The Indians wanted to keep there old way of life, but the white people were trying to change it..

With the start of the Oregon trail measles were brought to the Indians by the whitmans,which caused an epedemic. Over half the cayuse Indians died. Both Indians and white people died from the measles.200 people died.

The Indians thought Dr. Whitman was trying to kill them with poison. Because a mans wife had gotten sick from the measles and took the medicine she died. The Indians went to a council and decided that an Indian was should take the medicine and if he dies then they will really know if the medicine is poisoned or not. So the Indian took the medicine and died. So the cayuse killed Dr. Whitman which sent a signal for others to kill anyone who got in their way. When they killed everyone they took 53 hostages with them when they left. They held them for ransom. The cayuse belived that marcus was an evil shaman who used measles to kill the Indians. The cayuse killed the whitmans for revenge.

The names of the people who killed marcus whitman are Tilankait and Tansucky. Indians believed that if someone missused their spiritual powers they should be killed.

Governor Stevens tried to get the Indians to sign treaties,but the Indians really didn’t know what they were signing. The only thing they knew to write at that time was an x. They were made many promises that later were never kept. When they were put on reservations they were later forced to leave.

Who I think caused the whitman massacre is the cayuse Indians because when marcus ‘poisoned’ the medicine the Indians really didn’t half to kill him, but they did. So the Indians are at fault.

1.Washington Our Home; Gibbs Smith Education, Textbook, 2010 Bibliography 2.Google Images; whitman massacre attack, 3. Cayuse Attack mission ; www. History link.org,David Wilma, Essay 5192,Feburary 14, 2003.