Whitman Massacre - Causes

Causes

In 1836, Marcus Whitman, Rev. Henry Spalding, and their wives crossed the Rockies, Eliza Hart Spalding and Narcissa Whitman being the first white American women in Oregon Country. With the help of Dr. John McLoughlin – but against his advice – they settled at Waiilatpu, near Fort Walla Walla, only six miles from the site of the present day city of Walla Walla, Washington.

The Cayuse and Umatilla involved in the incident had previously lived at Waiilatpu, the mission founded by the Whitmans. Among the many new white arrivals at Waiilatpu in 1847 was Joe Lewis. Bitter from what he perceived to be maltreatment received in the East, Lewis attempted to spread discontent among the local Cayuse, hoping to create a situation in which he could ransack the Whitman Mission. He told the Cayuse that Dr. Whitman, who was attempting to treat them during a measles epidemic for which they lacked immunity, was, in fact, not trying to save them but instead was deliberately poisoning them. A common practice among the Columbia Plateau tribes was that the doctor, or shaman, could be killed in retribution if patients died. It is probable that the Cayuse and Umatilla held Dr. Whitman responsible for the numerous deaths and therefore felt justification to take his life as per their custom.

Other factors that may have contributed to the massacre were outbreaks of cholera, conflict between the Protestant missionaries and local Catholic priests, resentment over missionaries' attempts to transform the Indians' lifestyle and the killing of a Walla Walla chief's son. It was also claimed by anti-catholic ministers, including Henry Spalding, that Roman Catholic priests may have told the Cayuse that Whitman was the cause of the disease and incited the Cayuse to attack. Their motivation was portrayed as a desire to take over his Protestant station, which he had refused to sell to them. Priests named in various versions of this theory include Pierre-Jean De Smet, Jean-Baptiste Brouillet and Joseph Cataldo.

One complaint given by the Cayuse as a factor was a previous bad experience with whites in California. John Sutter had recruited a group of them to come to Sacramento for military service fighting the Mexicans, with the promise of regular army payment afterwards. When receipts were given instead, intended to be paid off after being federally sanctioned (which did happen 12 years after the fact), the Cayuse were enraged at Sutter and resorted to raiding livestock on their way back to Oregon.