Cayuse war

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The Cayuse War was an armed conflict between the United States and the Cayuse people in the northwestern part of what is now the United States, on the territory of today's Washington state . It lasted from 1847 or 1848 to 1855. It was triggered by the Whitman massacre in the Whitman Mission near Walla Walla in the east of today's state of Washington. 14 people were killed. The deeper causes lay in the influx of white settlers, who believed that they could gradually take what they saw as unused land, as well as in epidemics that brought in the settlers, above all measles . The government never formally regarded the Cayuse as an enemy of the war, and so there were executions for violent crimes.

Causes and course

In 1836, Marcus and Narcissa Whitman came as missionaries to the cayuse of Waiilatpu , about ten kilometers west of Walla Walla. Although they built a school and grew crops and provided irrigation, their missionary successes were poor and they were barely self-sufficient. That changed in 1842 when Marcus Whitman asked the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions for assistance. In 1843 around a thousand settlers came to the Oregon Territory .

The agriculture that the settlers brought with them required land that they believed was theirs. The Cayuse, for their part, believed that plowing the ground was like profaning the earth. Since the settlers hunted on their way because they also claimed the animals for themselves, the Cayuse demanded compensation. The settlers, for their part, thought the demand was begging and drove the negotiators out.

In addition, there were diseases brought on by the Indians. In 1847, a measles epidemic killed perhaps half of their tribe. They considered Marcus Whitman, who acted as a priest and doctor, and thus a shaman, for the cause of the catastrophes of epidemic, land and food loss.

On November 29, 1847, some men attacked the mission station. 14 settlers were killed, including the Whitman couple. The buildings were largely destroyed. 54 women and children were held for several weeks before they were released. One of the Hudson's Bay Company fur traders , Peter Skene Ogden , had secured her release by offering her 62 blankets, 63 cotton shirts, 24 rifles, 600 cartridges and seven pounds of tobacco in exchange for her. Today the site is a National Historic Site.

The Dalles Mission

The Oregon government and Governor George Abernethy called for an immediate response and allowed volunteers to be recruited. About 50 of them moved to The Dalles on Columbia under the command of Henry AG Lee . A force known as the Oregon Rifles was formed on December 8, 1847, and rallied at Fort Vancouver two days later. The Hudson's Bay Company sold them the equipment they needed. The men were to defend the local Methodist mission and secure the Willamette Valley; she marched to The Dalles, where she arrived on December 21st. At the same time, the governor appointed a peace commission, which consisted of Joel Palmer and Lee and Robert Newell.

In The Dalles, a group of Cayuse stole a herd of 300 animals. There the Rifles built a post called Fort Lee, which later became Fort Dalles. In January, under Colonel Cornelius Gilliam, a force of 500 marched against every Indian group in central Oregon. They reached Fort Lee in February. All of these men headed for the Whitman Mission. There was heavy fighting on the way there at Sand Hollows. Gilliam moved with a small force towards The Dalles to organize the supplies and on to Oregon City to report to the governor. Gilliam was killed in an accident, so Lee went to Oregon City. Lee was then promoted to Colonel, but he renounced this position in the camp, as the main force had in the meantime elected Lieutenant-Colonel James Waters as Colonel to lead the force.

The cayuse were split. Some of them raided isolated settlements, others negotiated with the Peace Commission. The militiamen made no distinction here and provoked friendly and hostile Indians. Because they were superior in terms of weaponry, many Cayuse fled to the Blue Mountains .

In 1850, the Cayuse extradited five men who were told to tell the truth. On June 3, 1850, Tilaukaikt, Tomahas, Klokamas, Isaiachalkis and Kimasumpkin were sentenced to death by a military commission and hanged as murderers of the Whitmans. The executioner was Marshal Joseph L. Meek. Kimasumpkin declared his innocence shortly before his execution.

Since the basic situation had not changed, the massacre was atoned for in the eyes of most, but the conflicts continued. It was not until 1855 that the Cayuse gave up and moved to a reservation . They had to share the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation with the Umatilla and Walla Walla. In the territory and in the federal capital, the consequence was drawn and aimed for a treaty with each of the tribes.

literature

  • Stephen Dow Beckham: Oregon History: Cayuse Indian War , Oregon Blue Book, 2006.
  • Robert H. Ruby, John Arthur Brown: The Cayuse Indians. Imperial Tribesmen of Old Oregon , University of Oklahoma Press, 1972.

Web links

See also

Remarks

  1. ^ Howard M. Corning: Dictionary of Oregon History . Binfords & Mort Publishing, 1956.
  2. ^ J. Henry Brown: Political History of Oregon: Provisional Government . Portland: The Lewis & Dryden Printing Co. 1892, p. 114.
  3. ↑ Washington State History Museum , archive.org, September 27, 2007.