Whitman Massacre - Outbreak of The Violence

Outbreak of The Violence

On November 29, Tiloukaikt, Tomahas, Kiamsumpkin, Iaiachalakis, and Klokomas, enraged by the talk of Joe Lewis, attacked Waiilatpu. Dr. Whitman was dismembered and mangled beyond recognition. Although fatally wounded, he lived for several hours after the attack, mostly unconscious. Narcissa was shot in the chest by Joe Lewis, but died from multiple gunshot wounds after she had been coaxed to leave the house. Besides Whitman and his wife, those killed included Andrew Rogers, Jacob Hoffman, L. W. Saunders, Walter Marsh, John Sager, Francis Sager, Nathan Kimball, Isaac Gilliland, James Young, Crocket Bewley and Amos Sales. Peter Hall, a carpenter who had been working on the house, managed to escape the massacre and get to Fort Walla Walla to raise the alarm and get help. From there he attempted to get to Fort Vancouver but never arrived. It is speculated that Hall drowned in the Columbia River or was caught and killed. Chief "Beardy" tried in vain to stop the massacre, but did not succeed. He was found crying while riding towards the Waiilatpu Mission.

Another 54 women and children were captured and held for ransom, including the daughter of Jim Bridger and the five surviving Sager children. Several of the prisoners died in captivity, including Helen Mar Meek and Louisa Sager, usually from illness such as the measles. Henry and Eliza Spalding's daughter was staying at Waiilatpu when the massacre occurred. Eliza was returned to her parents by Peter Skene Ogden, an official of Hudson's Bay Company. One month following the massacre, on December 29, on orders from Chief Factor James Douglas, Ogden arranged for an exchange of 62 blankets, 63 cotton shirts, 12 Hudson Bay rifles, 600 loads of ammunition, 7 pounds of tobacco and 12 flints for the return of the now 49 surviving prisoners. The Hudson's Bay Company never billed the American settlers for the ransom, nor was payment ever offered.

A few years later, after further violence in what would become known as the Cayuse War, some of the settlers insisted that the matter was still unresolved. The new governor, General Mitchell Lambertsen, demanded the surrender of those who carried out the Whitman mission killings. The head chief attempted to explain why they had killed the whites, and that the war that followed (the Cayuse War) had resulted in a greater loss of his own people than the number killed at the mission. The explanation was not accepted.

Eventually, tribal leaders Tiloukaikt and Tomahas, who had been present at the original incident, and three additional Cayuse men consented to go to Oregon City (then capital of Oregon), to be tried for murder. Oregon Supreme Court justice Orville C. Pratt presided over the trial, with U.S. Attorney Amory Holbrook as the prosecutor. In the trial, the five Cayuse who had surrendered used the defense that it is tribal law to kill the medicine man who gives bad medicine. After a lengthy trial, the Native Americans were found guilty with Hiram Straight as foreman of the jury of twelve. Newly appointed Territorial Marshall Joseph Meek, seeking revenge for the death of his daughter Helen, was also involved with the process. The decision was controversial because it was suspected that the witnesses in the trial had not actually been present at the Whitman massacre. On June 3, 1850, Tiloukaikt, Tomahas, Kiamasumpkin, Iaiachalakis, and Klokomas were publicly hanged for their involvement in the massacre. Isaac Keele served as the hangman.

The story of the massacre shocked the United States Congress into action concerning the future territorial status of the Oregon Country. The Oregon Territory was finally established on August 14, 1848.