How the Whitman Murders Redefined the American West

HISTORY This Week

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History, Education, Society & Culture

4.6 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 26 May 2025

⏱️ 33 minutes

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Summary

May 30, 1855. Five thousand Native Americans come to Walla Walla to negotiate a treaty. However, it’s not exactly a fair negotiation – the territorial governor basically tells these tribes that they have no choice but to live on reservations in order to maintain peace. This moment comes in the wake of a violent time in the Pacific Northwest, a period started by the killing of Christian missionaries—namely, Marcus and Narcissa Whitman—by the Cayuse tribe. In the wake of their deaths, the Whitmans are portrayed throughout the United States as martyrs; the Cayuse, as a problem to be dealt with. But in reality, the backstory behind these murders is a lot more complicated. How did things go so wrong between the Cayuse and the Whitmans? And how did these missionaries’ deaths lead to a massive expansion of the United States? Special thanks to Bobbie Conner, director of the Tamástslikt Cultural Institute; and Blaine Harden, former correspondent for the Washington Post and author of Murder at the Mission: A Frontier Killing, Its Legacy of Lies, and the Taking of the American West. We also consulted another great book putting this episode together, Unsettled Ground: The Whitman Massacre and Its Shifting Legacy in the American West by Cassandra Tate. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:30.2	The History Channel, original podcast. Hey everyone, Sally here. This week's episode is a deep dive
0:36.8	into a story featured on Kevin Costner's The West, a new History Channel TV series.
0:42.2	From executive producers Kevin Costner and Doris Kearns Goodwin, it takes a fresh look at the history of the American West by delving into the epic struggle for the land itself.
0:52.7	Check out new episodes of Kevin Costner's The West on
0:55.7	the History Channel, premiering on Memorial Day or stream the next day at history.com.
1:02.7	History This Week, May 30th, 1855. I'm Sally Helm.
1:11.9	A grassy plain near present-day Walla-Walla, Washington.
1:16.7	About 5,000 native people have gathered from five different tribes.
1:22.0	The Walla Walla, Yakima, Nez Perce, Yumatilla, and the Cayuse.
1:27.7	They're here to negotiate a treaty, one that will change the shape of the United States.
1:37.1	A man named Isaac Stevens steps out to address the crowd.
1:40.9	He's the governor of the newly incorporated Washington Territory. He wants to end the
1:46.3	bloodshed that has plagued the Columbia River Basin for the last eight years, but he wants
1:51.3	more than that. He's pretty clear about it. He wants these people to abandon their way of life
1:57.6	and adopt his.
2:06.6	He says, you'll all become farmers and mechanics and doctors and lawyers, like white men.
2:14.0	Also, you'll go live on some tracts of land around here, reservations, and we'll take the rest.
	...

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