18
AUG. 31�SEPT. 7
CULTURE & HERITAGE
Places
& Faces
Step back in time at Whitman Mission
The Whitman Mission National Historic Site in Walla Walla,
Washington, is open daily from 9 a.m.-4 p.m.
National Park Service/Contributed Photo
By Jeff Petersen
For Go! Magazine
WALLA WALLA, Wash. — Climb the
hill to the obelisk at Whitman Mission
National Historic Site and you’ll see a
peaceful scene.
One hundred seventy-fi ve years earlier,
it was the scene of a massacre.
The site six miles west of present-day
Walla Walla, Wash., played a key role in
white settlement of the West and the es-
tablishment of Oregon Territory in 1848.
Walking more than a mile of paved
trails, you’ll hear echoes of history. Mis-
sionaries Marcus and Narcissa Whitman
established a mission to the Cayuse
Nation at Waiilatpu in 1836. To the Indian
people the area was known as the Place
of the Sunfl owers due to an abundance
of arrowleaf balsamroot, whose yellow
blossoms in spring were welcome after
long winters.
By 1843, Narcissa had established a
school for Indian children. The Cayuse
were growing small plots of wheat, corn,
peas and potatoes and raising cattle,
sheep, hogs and hens. Marcus taught
them how to till fi elds, irrigate crops and
erect mills for grinding corn and wheat.
But the Indians were lukewarm to the
Christian way of life, preferring their own
Seven Drum Religion. The Cayuse mainly
congregated at Whitman Mission during
spring planting and fall harvest.
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