Whitman massacre

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The Whitman massacre (also known as the Whitman killings and the Tragedy at Waiilatpu) was the killing of American missionaries Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, along with eleven others, on November 29, 1847. They were killed by a small group of Cayuse men who suspected that Whitman had poisoned the 200 Cayuse in his medical care during an outbreak of measles that included the Whitman household. The killings occurred at the Whitman Mission at the junction of the Walla Walla River and Mill Creek in what is now southeastern Washington near Walla Walla. The massacre became a decisive episode in the U.S. settlement of the Pacific Northwest, causing the United States Congress to take action declaring the territorial status of the Oregon Country. The Oregon Territory was established on August 14, 1848, to protect the white settlers. The massacre is usually ascribed to the inability of Whitman, a physician, to prevent the measles outbreak. Cayuse in at least three villages held Whitman responsible for the widespread epidemic that killed hundreds of Cayuse while leaving settlers comparatively unscathed. Some Cayuse accused settlers of poisoning them so they could take their land. In the trial of five Cayuse accused of the killing, they used the defense that it was tribal law to kill the medicine man who gives bad medicine. Today, the Cayuse are one of three tribes comprising the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR).