We Who Survived -14 - Perrin Whitman and the Indians -part 1

 May 5

I have one more trip to make to research my book. I took a train down to Walla Walla, and then will be taking another one south from there.  While I am there in the area where the Whitman mission was, I have arranged to meet up with Perrin Whitman. Even though Perrin spent several years at the Whitman mission, he was not there at all during the time when we were there – as he was sent to
take charge of the Methodist mission in The Dalles, which Dr. Whitman had bought.

Perrin is a very impressive man, tall with a full beard. When we met, he started out by telling me a bit about himself.

“As you probably already know, I was the adopted son and nephew of Dr. Marcus Whitman. I was born in Danville, Illinois, in 1830. In '40 my family went to New York, and in '43, when my uncle came to visit us, and I was thirteen years of age, he offered me the chance to go with the first wagon train that made its way over the plains to the Columbia River.”

“I have heard that during the time the Doctor had gone East, to try to convince the President to make this territory firmly under the control of the Americans to keep the British out, Mrs. Whitman had some trouble with the Indians. Do you know anything about that?”

“Only what I was told. During that period , he hired Mr. Geiger to be at the mission in his absence, but before he arrived, an Indian forced his way into Aunt Narcissa's bed chamber at midnight, but she with the help of a Hawaiian employed at the mission was successful in expelling him but not without a nervous shock that left her on the verge of sickness. After this the mill and all the grain were destroyed by a fire set by the Indians, who were now so menacing that the factor at Fort Walla Walla at the time, Mr. McKinlay, sent for her to come there which she did. Some say it was Tamsucky who attempted the assault, yet I doubt it as she appeared to be quite friendly with him up to the time she was killed. Baptiste Dorian was responsible for the destruction of the mill.

“But after that the Whitmans were still more zealous. Because of the fire, we had to exist on potatoes, corn meal, cakes made from burnt wheat with a little milk.”

“Tell me about what you were thinking and doing when the massacre occurred. I know you weren't
there at the time.”

“My life was spared only through chance, as I was at The Dalles when the massacre occurred. My uncle had sent me to take charge of some property which he had purchased from the Methodist mission, and sixteen days intervened before I even heard of the tragedy. Mr. Hinman, who with his family lived with me at The Dalles, had gone to Vancouver, where he learned the news. While a consultation was being held between us to decide what had better be done about the matter, five Indians rode up, saying that they were hungry, so I went to the barn with them and gave them in
their blankets nearly half a bushel of wheat. They had placed their guns by the fence, and all at once they gave a tremendous yell, scattered the wheat out of the blankets and rode away, for they had
discovered that the white men had learned of the killing and were in a measure prepared for them.

“At three o'clock on the following morning we started for Oregon City, knowing we were no longer safe, but after proceeding only sixteen miles on our way, a severe wind caused us to have to push ashore, and we were forced to remain at that point for sixteen days longer, days fraught with danger and suspense.

“After reaching Oregon City I joined a party of volunteers that started out to arrest the Indians
that had committed the crime, and also to relieve and protect the white men at the other mission. When all the volunteers had assembled there were several hundred of us, and as I knew the area, I piloted the boats up the Columbia River and also acted as interpreter to the Indians. At the time the volunteers were mustered out, it was requested that fifty should continue in service, and I was one of the number who acceded to the request.”

“Were you at the trial?”

“No. I was in the upper country when the five Indians were hanged at Oregon City, and though I made
all haste to reach the scene I arrived a day too late.”

“And what are you doing now?”

“In '63 I went with my family to Idaho, locating at the old mission place Lapwai, where I was employed by the government as an interpreter in the Indian schools, and also had charge of the Indian agency for a time. Rev. Spalding was also there and doing a similar job  for a few years.”

“This is certainly a very beautiful, peaceful spot now. It is hard to remember back to those days when we were so frightened,” I said. “What do you know about the history of this place?”

“Walla Walla, written 'Wallo Wollah' by Lewis and Clark, derives from a Nez Percé and Cayuse word
'walatsa,' meaning running, a probable reference to the running waters of the Walla Walla River. The area gets Chinook winds that usually yield relatively mild winters. Abundant grass and water for
cattle were early inducements to white settlement. Even here where the county approaches the Blue Mountains and the terrain becomes increasingly steep and less suited to agriculture, wheat and green peas are cultivated at elevations as high as 3,000 feet.

“The Cayuse, Walla Walla, and Umatilla peoples occupied the land at the eastern end of the Columbia River basin. The tribes lived in semi-permanent lodges up to 60 feet long. These lodges were shared by up to 10 related families.”

“What were their lodges like?”

“Both the Cayuses and Nez Percés lodges were constructed out of hides, bark and reeds placed over a framework of poles and oblong in shape  with each family having its own fire for cooking.”

“Do they all speak the same language?”

“The three tribes speak the Shahaptian language. The Cayuse and Nez Percé acquired horses in the
early 1700s, breeding them for sale and trade with each other and, after white contact, with trappers and eventually early settlers. I learned as much of the native languages as I could when I arrived,
and have been grateful to my uncle for having me do that, as it has provided me with my life's work."

“What can you tell me about Umatilla? I understand the Cayuse Indians are mostly on a reservation
there.”

“The first settlement of any kind in Umatilla county was the Catholic Mission, established on the
Umatilla above Pendleton, by Bishop A. M. A. Blanchet, Father J. B. A. Brouillet and Mr. Leclaire, on November 27, '47, two days before the Whitman massacre. After the horrible massacre at Waiilatpu, they were unable to do any missionary work; and January 2, '48, Bishop Blanchet left for Vancouver with Peter Ogden and the rescued prisoners. Father Brouillet and Mr. Leclaire remained at Umatilla, in accordance with a promise made to the Cayuses to stay with them as long as they and the Americans did not go to war. On the nineteenth of February '48, the Cayuses went out to fight Oregon volunteers, and the next day Father Brouillet and his companion went to Fort Walla
Walla, and about three weeks later to the Willamette Valley. The Indians being displeased, burned their house and destroyed the property left behind them.

“If they weren't really interested in his religion, why do you think the Cayuse Indians asked Dr.
Whitman to settle in this area originally?”

“The Cayuse Indians had little intent on adopting the white man's religion. Their desire to have the
Whitmans act as traders points to an interest in obtaining white goods, while the effort by some of the men of the tribe to act as religious intermediaries between the missionaries.

“As the Whitmans eventually discovered, many barriers stood in the way of cultural and religious
transformation. By the time they arrived the Cayuse had adopted some aspects of white civilization; at least a few wore articles of European clothing and raised cattle as well as horses; many prayed in
the morning and evening and on the Sabbath, observances taught to them by Hudson's Bay Company traders.

“But their cultural borrowing was selective, and their way of life was vigorous enough to withstand the
kind of wholesale change the missionaries sought. During the 11 years of the Whitmans' activities te-wats, or medicine men, continued to play an important role in Cayuse life; fields were cultivated by slaves and women, not by the men of the tribe as Uncle Marcus wished; Indians pressed the missionaries to act like their own tribal elders and to tell them marvelous stories from the Old Testament rather than explicate doctrine.”

“What do you know of Tom Hill? I have heard that his speeches might have influenced the Indians to
decide on the massacre.”

“It was the summer before the massacre when Tom Hill, an educated Delaware Indian visited all the Western tribes. He warned them of the dangers of the white people trying to destroy them. The Whitmans made a feast for him and his followers to which they invited the Cayuse chiefs. Hill possessed remarkable oratorical skill, and made a two hour speech in the Cayuse tongue. He told them what would be the outcome if they allowed the whites to settle in their lands. I think he was a potent factor in the massacre. The killing of a Nez Percé girl who accompanied Mr. Grey in 1837 and that of Elijah, son of Peupeumoxmox, had not been avenged and the question of killing the
missionaries in retaliation was frequently brought up in Indian councils. Some Americas had deliberately introduced small pox to the Blackfoot tribe, and the mortality had been terrific. The doctor was somewhat careless in entrusting poison to people in his service. They thought that he, as the doctor, possessed the power to kill them off at will. The conditions at Waiilatpu for the three years previous were similar to those that had preceded all Indian outbreaks in the past - conquest of the strong and resistance of the weak in the struggle to acquire and hold land.”

“So the Indians didn't really appreciate the missionaries at all.”

“At the beginning Tiloukaikt seemed interested in what the missionaries had to offer. Aunt Narcissa
identified him as a friendly Indian; and it was he who called their newborn daughter Alice Cayuse girl. By '41, however, Tiloukaikt had become disillusioned with the missionary presence. The friendly
Indian had become most insolent; he demanded the Whitmans pay for mission lands and, in a direct rejection of white notions of boundaries and trespassing, turned horses onto the mission fields and
assaulted Marcus.

“Most likely Tiloukaikt was trying to force the Whitmans to give up the mission. When the Whitmans
stayed, Tiloukaikt's attitude wavered; he became one of the few candidates for admission to the church. Whatever interest he felt in the church apparently was not strong enough to allow him to resist those in the tribe who wanted the Whitmans killed.”

“Yet several of the survivors have said that he regretted it afterwards.”

“A source of continuing tension between the Whitmans and the Cayuse, and surely one of the root
causes of the mission's abrupt end, was the particular style of interaction that they used with the Indians. Like other evangelical Protestants of the period, the Whitmans believed it was their duty to
draw clear and often public distinctions between nonbelievers and believers, and between 'sinful' and 'Christian' behavior. They felt obliged to chastise rather than to tolerate, to warn rather than keep
silent. Despite the bitter opposition that emerged to what some of the Cayuse labeled as bad talk, Narcissa and Marcus repeatedly singled out as sinners those who followed tribal customs like
polygamy, and the couple warned the Indians that they were on the road to hell. Some Cayuse became convinced that the Whitmans were condemning their entire way of life.”

“Did the other people in the area like Dr. Whitman?”

“Uncle Marcus was a good sort of fellow in that he could talk with a common man and the trappers got along with him, but his wife they considered a woman of too much education and refinement
to be thrown away on the Indians. They thought she must have romance in her composition to agree to put up with such a common kind good-hearted fellow as the doctor.”

“But, he didn't seem such a good-hearted fellow to the Indians,” I added.

“The more the Cayuse demanded that the Whitmans keep silent, the more compelled the Whitmans felt to continue. He said if he did not tell them plainly of their sins the Lord would be displeased with him. It was his duty to tell them that they had done wrong. Without greater tolerance, frustrations grew on both sides.”

(to be continued)