Whitman Mission National Historic Site

Infobox_nrhp | name =Whitman Mission National Historic Site
nrhp_type =


caption =
nearest_city= Walla Walla, Washington
lat_degrees = 46
lat_minutes = 2
lat_seconds = 24
lat_direction = N
long_degrees = 118
long_minutes = 27
long_seconds = 41
long_direction = W
locmapin = Washington
area =
built =1836
architect=
architecture=
added = October 15, 1966
governing_body = National Park Service
refnum=66000749cite web|url=http://www.nr.nps.gov/|title=National Register Information System|date=2008-04-15|work=National Register of Historic Places|publisher=National Park Service]

Whitman Mission National Historic Site is a United States National Historic Site located just west of Walla Walla, Washington, at the site of the former Whitman Mission at Waiilatpu. On November 29, 1847, the family of Dr. Marcus Whitman and others were massacred by Native Americans of the Cayuse. The site commemorates Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, the role they played in establishing the Oregon Trail, and the challenges encountered when two cultures meet.

History

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. Differences in culture led to growing tensions between the native Cayuse people and the Whitmans. Their mission became an important stop along the Oregon Trail, and passing immigrants added to the tension. A measles outbreak in 1847 killed half the local Cayuse. Some of the Cayuse blamed these deaths on Dr. Whitman. Dr. and Mrs. Whitman were killed along with eleven others; sixty other mission residents were taken hostage. The deaths of the Whitmans shocked the country, prompting Congress to make Oregon a U.S. territory, and precipitated the Cayuse War.

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

External links

* [http://www.nps.gov/whmi/ National Park Service: Whitman Mission National Historic Site]