The killing of Marcus and Narcissa Whitman and eleven others at Weyíiletpuu on November 29, 1847 ignited a war between Anglo and Native American people. The incident motivated the United States Government to invest greater authority over the Pacific Northwest. It all started with a call from the west, when delegates from the Nez Perce and Flathead tribes sought information on the white man's "Book of Heaven". In 1836, Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, Reverend Henry and Eliza Spaulding, and William H. Gray crossed the North American continent from New York to establish Protestant missions in the Pacific Northwest. Marcus Whitman and Henry Spaulding surveyed the Columbia Plateau for locations to build their missions. In an 1836 letter written to Rev. David Greene, Secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, Whitman stated that they decided on two locations to construct the new missions, one on the Walla Walla River, twenty-five miles from the fort (Walla Walla) in what the fur traders called the Weyíiletpuu (or Cailoux) country; the other mission would be constructed one hundred miles north east near Lewiston, Idaho in Nez Perce country.
From 1836-1847, the Whitmans instructed the Cayuse on the principles of Christianity, agriculture, western customs and values. Although the Whitmans expected the Cayuse to learn the intricacies of their culture, they struggled to learn the Cayuse language. Andrew Walls noted that successful missionary service required living on terms set by by other people, and that missionaries who wanted to change other people, had to submit to being changed in order to do so (Walls, p. 113). By the early 1840s, more settlers traveled west, and the Whitmans became responsible for managing a major station on the Oregon Trail. The Whitmans dedicated less time to teaching the Cayuse the principles of Christianity or learning their language and rather focused on agrarianism and administering to the sick. |
In 1842, the ABCFM ordered the closure of its missions at Weyíiletpuu and Lapwai, due to a lack of funding and reports of conflict between natives and settlers. In the winter of 1843, Marcus Whitman traveled to Boston to meet with the mission board of governors in hopes of convincing them to continue missionary services at Weyíiletpuu and Lapwai. Whitman encouraged the ABCFM to continue missionary efforts in the Pacific Northwest. When Whitman returned to Weyíiletpuu in 1843, he led one of the largest wagon trains of settlers across the Blue Mountains up to that point. Yet, for the next four years, relations between the Cayuse and the Whitman's deteriorated, culminating in a violent end on November 29, 1847.
Discussion Topic:
"The Western missionary movement developed out of a heavily acculturated form of Christianity that had resulted from centuries of interaction with the conditions and traditions of a Europe that had little knowledge of worlds beyond itself and the Middle East" (Walls, p. 112). Using the letters of Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, as well as Andrew Walls' Cross-cultural Encounters and the Shift to World Christianity, and Webster's ABCFM and the First Presbyterian Missions in the Northwest, define and discuss the ABCFM's missionary strategy in the Northwest. How did cultural integration play a factor in their strategy? How did the Whitman's approach to missionary work affect their efforts to Christianize the Cayuse?
Discussion Topic:
"The Western missionary movement developed out of a heavily acculturated form of Christianity that had resulted from centuries of interaction with the conditions and traditions of a Europe that had little knowledge of worlds beyond itself and the Middle East" (Walls, p. 112). Using the letters of Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, as well as Andrew Walls' Cross-cultural Encounters and the Shift to World Christianity, and Webster's ABCFM and the First Presbyterian Missions in the Northwest, define and discuss the ABCFM's missionary strategy in the Northwest. How did cultural integration play a factor in their strategy? How did the Whitman's approach to missionary work affect their efforts to Christianize the Cayuse?