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In 1831 four Nez Perce arrived in St. Louis to speak with General
William Clark, of Lewis and Clark fame. General Clark was then in
charge of Indian affairs west of the Mississippi River. Differences
in language precluded clear communication. The trip was interpreted
as a request for information on the Christian religion.
The Methodists responded first, sending Rev. Jason Lee to the Willamette
Valley in 1834. The first Roman Catholic missionaries arrived in
Oregon Country a few years later in 1838.
In 1835 the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions,
a group composed of Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Dutch
Reformists, sent an exploratory party, led by Rev. Samuel Parker,
to the interior of the Oregon Country. Rev. Parker was accompanied
by Dr. Marcus Whitman.
The American Board party traveled with the fur caravan to the annual
rendezvous. There Rev. Parker and Dr. Whitman parted company. Dr.
Whitman returned east with the fur caravan to marry his fiancée
and gather recruits. Rev. Parker continued west looking for the
best site for the mission.
Dr. Whitman returned in 1836 with his new bride, Narcissa, the
Rev. Henry Harmon Spalding and his wife Eliza, and Mr. William Gray,
a handyman. The Spaldings established a mission to the Nez Perce
at Lapwai while the Whitmans went to work with the Cayuse at Waiilatpu.
In 1838 the American Board sent a small group of reinforcements:
Rev. Elkanah Walker and his wife Mrs. Mary Walker, Rev. Cushing
Eells and Mrs. Myra Eells, Mr. Asa Bowden Smith and his wife Mrs.
Sarah Smith, and Mr. Gray, who had returned east to find a wife,
and his new wife Mrs. Mary Gray. All four couples were newlyweds.
The group was joined in Cincinnati by 23-year-old Cornelius Rodgers.
The Smiths and Mr. Rodgers went to Waiilatpu. The Walkers, Eells,
and Grays established two new missions to work with the Spokane
people: Tshimakian and Kamiah.
Support also came from the American Board's Hawaiian mission. Because
of the importance of the written word to Protestant sects, a printing
press was shipped from the Hawaiian mission to the Lapwai station.
This was the first printing press on the Pacific slope. It was used
to print the Gospel of Mathew in Nez Perce. The Hawaiian mission
also sent sheep and workers to the new Oregon Country stations.
The Whitmans attempted to make settled farmers out of the mobile
Cayuse. The Whitmans saw this as necessary in order to teach them
about Christianity. Differences in culture, values, and language
resulted in conflict between the missionaries and the Cayuse.
The development of the Oregon Trail exacerbated this situation.
The increasing number of emigrants passing through Cayuse lands
elevated the tension between the tribe and the Whitmans. A measles
epidemic in the fall of 1847 was the breaking point. Over one half
of the local Cayuse population died from the disease while nearly
all of the emigrants recovered. To some Cayuse this appeared to
be an attack on their people. On November 29, 1847 they retaliated.
Dr. and Mrs. Whitman were killed along with 11 others. The remaining
60 people, mostly emigrants over wintering with the Whitmans, were
taken hostage. The captives were ransomed one month later by employees
of the Hudson Bay Company.
This attack ended the Waiilatpu mission and the other American
Board missions in Oregon Country.
References
Information from Marcus and Narcissa Whitman
and the Opening of Old Oregon by Clifford M. Drury.
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