This fascinating, impeccably researched narrative traces the ripple effect of these events across the century that followed. Though they had ample reason - Whitman supported the explosion of white migration that was encroaching on their territory, and seemed to blame for a deadly measles outbreak - the Cayuse were portrayed as murderous savages. Soon after his return, Whitman, his wife, and eleven others were massacred by a group of Cayuse. In fact, he had traveled to Washington to save his own job. But Spalding would succeed as a propagandist, inventing a story that recast his friend as a hero, and helped to fuel the massive westward migration that would eventually lead to the devastation of those they had purportedly set out to save.Īs Spalding told it, after uncovering a British and Catholic plot to steal the Oregon Territory from the United States, Whitman undertook a heroic solo ride across the country to alert the President. Both would fail spectacularly as missionaries.

Marcus Whitman and Reverend Henry Spalding were headed to present-day Washington state and Idaho, where they aimed to convert members of the Cayuse and Nez Perce tribes. In 1836, two missionaries and their wives were among the first Americans to cross the Rockies by covered wagon on what would become the Oregon Trail.

” –Claudio Saunt, author of Unworthy Republicįrom the New York Times bestselling author of Escape From Camp 14, a “terrifically readable” ( Los Angeles Times) account of one of the most persistent “alternative facts ” in American history: the story of a missionary, a tribe, a massacre, and a myth that shaped the American West “A riveting investigation of both American myth-making and the real history that lies beneath. “Terrific.” –Timothy Egan, The New York Times Finalist for the 2022 Will Rogers Medallion Award

Unworthy republic claudio saunt