Whitman Massacre
See also: Cayuse WarThroughout their time in Oregon Country, Narcissa and Marcus encountered trouble with the native tribes. The Cayuse and the Nez Percé tribes were suspicious of the activities and the encouragement of the Americans. As early as 1841, Tiloukaikt had tried to force them to leave Waiilatpu and the ancestral homeland.
In 1847, a measles epidemic broke out among the native population. Spread to the natives by contact with whites, the native population lacked immunity to the disease and it spread quickly. The American populations had some limited immunity to measles which meant a lower mortality rate than the natives. This discrepancy stirred discontent among the natives who felt Marcus was only curing the white people while letting Indian children die. The resentment concerning all the different issues boiled over on November 29, 1847 when Tiloukaikt and others attacked the mission killing both Marcus and Narcissa. This event would be remembered as the Whitman Massacre, in which many others were killed and many more taken hostage.
Read more about this topic: Narcissa Whitman
Famous quotes containing the words whitman and/or massacre:
“Beat! beat! drums!—blow! bugles! blow!
Through the windows—through doors—burst like a ruthless force,
Into the solemn church, and scatter the congregation;
Into the school where the scholar is studying;
Leave not the bridegroom quiet—no happiness must he have now with his bride;
Nor the peaceful farmer any peace, plough his field or gathering his
grain;
So fierce you whirr and pound, you drums—so shrill you bugles blow.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
“It is hard, I submit, to loathe bloodshed, including war, more than I do, but it is still harder to exceed my loathing of the very nature of totalitarian states in which massacre is only an administrative detail.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)