In 1836, a small group of
Presbyterian missionaries traveled with the annual
fur trapper's caravan into
Oregon Country. Among the group, Narcissa Whitman and
Eliza Hart Spalding became the first white women to travel across the continent. Marcus Whitman and Narcissa Whitman established the Whitman Mission at Waiilatpu, near the Walla Walla River. The mission was in
Cayuse territory. The Cayuse welcomed the Whitmans to their land in 1836 after learning of them the previous year from
Samuel Parker. The Mission became an important stop along the Oregon Trail from 1843 to 1847, and passing immigrants added to the tension. With the influx of white settlers the Cayuse became suspicious of the Whitmans again, fearing that the white man was coming to take the land. A
measles outbreak in November 1847 killed half the local Cayuse. The measles also broke out in the Mission but more white settlers survived. Some of the Cayuse blamed the devastation of their tribe on Dr. Whitman and Mrs. Whitman. They were killed along with eleven others; forty-seven other mission residents were taken hostage. The deaths of the Whitmans shocked the country, prompting
Congress to make Oregon a US territory, and precipitated the
Cayuse War. Five Cayuse were hanged for murder; see
Cayuse Five. In more recent times, the site has been excavated for important artifacts, and then reburied. A memorial obelisk, erected fifty years after the event, stands on a nearby hill. The historic site was established in 1936 as
Whitman National Monument and was redesignated a
National Historic Site on January 1, 1963. ==References==