Whitman Mission National Historic Site - Walla Walla, WA

Marcus and Narcissa Whitman came west from New York in 1836 and established a Christian mission on Cayuse Lands in the modern-day Walla Walla Valey. Initially, their goal was to convert the Cayuse Indians and save their souls. After some years of being largely unsuccessful, they shifted the focus of their efforts to aiding and ministering to the ever-increasing numbers of white immigrants arriving from the East via The Oregon Trail.

Whitman Mission National Historic Site

Rye Grass...Plentiful throughout the area

With them came diseases. Malaria decimated Indian communities along the lower Columbia River by 1840. Measles struck the Cayuse and mission communities in 1847. Marcus Whitman was trained as a doctor. Because of natural immunity coupled with his medical care, most of his white patients survived the diseases. Few, if any, of his Indian patients survived.

First House site

Emigrant House site

Blacksmith Shop site

Mission House site

The Cayuse believed anyone with the power to heal also had the power to kill. And the penalty for malpractice was death. Although the members of the tribe were divided, their leaders decided to hold Marcus Whitman accountable for the widespread deaths.

On November 29, 1847, a small group of Cayuse men attacked the mission and killed Marcus and Narcissa Whitman and 11 other men. They held 47 other people hostage for almost a month. In March 1848, immigrant settlers formed a militia and brought revenge on the Cayuse by killing men, women, and children, taking horses and cattle, and disrupting their seasonal harvests.

Remnant of The Oregon Trail Spur

In May 1850, five Cayuse men surrendered and took the blame for the killings in an attempt to preserve a future for the remaining tribe members. Despite a lack of evidence, the men found guilty at a trial and hung.

In 1855, a treaty was signed which vacated the majority of Cayuse lands to the U.S. government. Today, the site of the Whitman Mission is preserved so we remember the events, their impact, and their legacy.

Whitman Memorial Shaft
(the Cayuse dead are not similarly memorialized)