How the Whitman Murders Redefined the American West | HISTORY This Week | Full Podcast

May 30, 1855. Five thousand Native Americans come to Walla Walla to negotiate a treaty. However, it’s not exactly a fair negotiation – the territorial governor basically tells these tribes that they have no choice but to live on reservations in order to maintain peace.

Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
0:37 The 1855 Treaty Council
3:23 Who Are the Cayuse?
4:51 Missionaries Arrive in Cayuse Territory
7:10 Marcus & Narcissa Whitman’s Mission
12:49 The Death of Alice Whitman
14:29 Whitman Fired — and Returns With Settlers
18:01 Poison Incidents. Collapsing Trust, and Measles Devastates the Tribes
20:49 The Whitman Attack (1847)
24:42 The Trial & Execution of the Cayuse Five
27:44 Mythmaking: Henry Spalding’s Story

#HISTORY

This moment comes in the wake of a violent time in the Pacific Northwest, a period started by the killing of Christian missionaries—namely, Marcus and Narcissa Whitman—by the Cayuse tribe. In the wake of their deaths, the Whitmans are portrayed throughout the United States as martyrs; the Cayuse, as a problem to be dealt with. But in reality, the backstory behind these murders is a lot more complicated.

How did things go so wrong between the Cayuse and the Whitmans? And how did these missionaries’ deaths lead to a massive expansion of the United States?

Special thanks to Bobbie Conner, director of the Tamástslikt Cultural Institute; and Blaine Harden, former correspondent for the Washington Post and author of Murder at the Mission: A Frontier Killing, Its Legacy of Lies, and the Taking of the American West.

We also consulted another great book putting this episode together, Unsettled Ground: The Whitman Massacre and Its Shifting Legacy in the American West by Cassandra Tate.


Credits:

Ben Dickstein | EP/Sound Designer
Sally Helm | Host
Eli Lehrer | Executive Producer
Liv Fidler | Executive Producer

Get in touch: [email protected]

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How the Whitman Murders Redefined the American West | HISTORY This Week | Full Podcast
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