Warfare erupted from the killings of Marcus and Narcissa Whitman at their mission along the Walla Walla River at Waiilatpu. Like most wars, they are easier to extinguish than to begin. Here are some of those involved with the Cayuse War, a “war” having grievous results for the Natives belonging to the Cayuse peoples and directly transforming the state of government in the Pacific Northwest.
WHITE LEADERS
George Abernethy
First and only governor of the Provisional Government of Oregon, George Abernathy came out to Oregon in 1840 as part of Jason Lee’s “Great Reinforcement” to the Methodist efforts at Mission Bottom in the Willamette Valley – located just south of the ferry crossing at Wheatland. Abernethy became the steward for the mission’s secular services letting Lee focus towards preaching. The mission moved shortly after Lee’s return further upstream to the Mission Mill at the confluence of Mill Creek and the Willamette. From here, the settlement of Chemeketa – Salem, today, developed.
The main mercantile store of the Mission, previously moved to Oregon City, was bought by Abernethy when the mission was closed in 1844. Not only involved in business, but Abernethy also controlled Oregon’s first newspaper, the Oregon Spectator – 1846-1855, and was involved in Oregon’s political beginnings.
A NEW GOVERNMENT
A series of meetings took place in Champoeg in 1843 to develop a form of local government to address problems such as livestock predation and settlement of the estate of Ewing Young who left his estate to a government not yet in existence. Previously, the Northwest existed as a political entity known as a condominium with control shared between the United States and the United Kingdom. The agreement, however, included no rules as to how the vast territory was to be controlled locally.
Early in the years of the condominium, Hudson’s Bay Company served as the main bastion of European civilization in the region. Several French-Canadian trappers formerly working with HBC settled on farms in the Willamette Valley – mainly in the area of the French Prairie, the plateau running from just south of Oregon City to Salem. Those families found themselves matched by settlers attracted by Lee – the Great Reinforcement. The incoming Americans, finding a leader in Abernethy, became known as the Mission Party whose main push was to establish American control over Oregon in opposition to England and the HBC.
A provisional government was voted upon by those attending the meetings 2 May 1843 with a three-member executive committee and a legislative committee of nine – all Americans elected. To gain more settlers, the new “government” offered 320 acres to any white man 18 years or older – 640 acres to married couples.
GOVERNOR
Two years later, a reorganization of the government led to a single executive replacing the three-man committee with Abernethy chosen as governor. He would win re-election two years later. Beyond asking for a standard of weights and measures, the survey of a new road to the Willamette Valley, schools, pilot service over the Columbia River bar, Abernethy requested the institution of a militia. This militia Abernethy called out in December 1847 in response to the killings at Waiilatpu.
The goal of the men called up – 600 men though the number answering the call was slightly less – was to bring those responsible – men from one or more Cayuse tribes – to justice for the murders. A recent Missouri emigrant with experience in fighting with Native Americans in the Midwest, Cornelius Gilliam was tabbed to lead the men east.
At the same time, Joe Meek, a member of the legislature was sent east to Washington, D.C. to bring news of the attack along with petitions asking for federal protection for settlers in the Oregon Country. A treaty had divided the region at the 49th parallel giving the lands to the south to the U.S., but Congress had not acted yet to establish territorial government because of questions relating to slavery had not been settled.
THE NEW TERRITORY
Finally, Congress acted created the Oregon Territory Act signed 14 August 1848 by President James Polk. Polk appointed Mexican War hero and fellow Democrat Joseph Lane to become the first territorial governor. Abernethy relinquished his office with Lane’s arrival to Oregon City 3 March 1849 as the Provisional Government became a page of history.
After Abernethy’s stint as governor, he returned to his store in Oregon City to which he added a sawmill and a flour mill. He owned ships which brought goods from the East and from the Sandwich Islands – Hawai’i. His successful run ended with the big flood of 1861 which wiped out Champoeg and much of Oregon City. Relocating to Portland, he rebuilt his business rebuilding his fortunes with earlier business contacts in New York City.
His daughter, Annie, married Army officer Henry Clay Hodges, a quartermaster assigned to Fort Vancouver, a colleague and friend of U.S. Grant. His son, William, married the daughter of William H. Gray, Sarah Fidalia Gray. William and his wife lie buried next to the Whitman grave at Waiilatpu.
Abernethy died in 1877 at 70 years of age. He lay first in Lone Fir Cemetery, but his remains moved across the Willamette in 1883 to River View Cemetery in southwest Portland.
Joseph Lane
Growing up in western North Carolina, Joseph Lane left home at fourteen. He made his home in Darlington, Indiana, about halfway between Indianapolis and Lafayette. He farmed, raised a family and was a Democratic state legislator before going off to fight in the Mexican War where he achieved some fame as a brigadier general.
In reward for his service, Lane became named governor of the new Territory of Oregon serving as Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the territory concurrently. He dealt with Cayuse chief Tauitau saying threatening the Cayuse Nation with destruction unless the responsible were not turned over for trial. Lane went on saying this was something he did not want to happen. Tauittau was able, with Nez Perce help, to capture Tiloukait and Tomahas over the winter of 1849-1850. Other participants in the killings met with similar fates. Tamsucky and Shumkain were shot and killed. Five ended up captured and turned over to Lane in early April 1850 at Fort Dalles. He would go on to fight and negotiate troubles with Native Americans in the Rogue River region in 1853 following his renomination as Territorial Delegate.
POLITICS AFTER GOVERNORSHIP
He served as governor fairly briefly as his benefactor, President Polk, saw his term ending with a change of political power moving from the Democrats to the Whigs with the election of Zachary Taylor. Taylor’s first choice for territorial governor, Abraham Lincoln, turned down the job.
Lane resigned the governorship 18 June 1850 with his replacement, John P. Gaines, arriving two months later. Lane moved on to win four terms of Oregon’s territorial delegate to Congress helping Democrats dominate Oregon politics through the 1850’s. With statehood for Oregon 14 February 1859, Lane became one of Oregon’s senators. A defender of slavery as an adjunct of States’ Rights, the southern Democrats chose Lane to run as a vice-presidential candidate to John Breckinridge of Kentucky. As the South seceded in response to the election of Abraham Lincoln, Lane defended the right to separate, and he was denied re-election to the Senate in early 1861.
Making matters worse, son John left West Point to accept a commission in the rebel army. Lane’s political career over, he lived farming near Roseburg until his death in the spring of 1881.
Peter Skene Ogden
A life of true adventure was what Peter Skene Ogden was all about.
Born into an American loyalist family in Quebec City, the son of a judge in Quebec, his life was planned for law. But Peter Ogden thrived on more than courtrooms. His life as a trapper, trader, explorer and administrator is far beyond the scope of this post. By the time of the Cayuse War, Ogden served as a Chief Factor for the Hudson’s Bay Company. He replaced John McLoughlin at Fort Vancouver.
With the Whitman murders, Ogden rushed upriver to the HBC fort at the confluence of the Walla Walla and Columbia. Originally Fort Nez Perce, but changed to Fort Walla Walla. He hoped to try and avert an Indian war. He successfully bartered for the hostages taken at Waiilatpu in return for several boatloads of HBC goods. At the same time, he harangued the Cayuse chiefs for allowing young hot heads – directed in part by a half-Native American Joe Lewis who repaid earlier Whitman generosity with hate and innuendo – to take matters into their own hands.
Ogden earned the good graces of American settlers for the part he played. Increasing bad health after a life lived in the wild soon took its toll. He retired to Oregon City where he died at the home of Sarah McKinlay one of his daughters. He lies buried in the Mountain View Cemetery there.
PROVISIONAL PEACE COMMISSIONERS
Robert Newell
Two of Oregon’s “old settlers”, Robert Newell and Joseph Meek, settled permanently in the Tualatin Valley of Oregon in 1840. They were trappers wandering the west for over a decade by then, married to Nez Perce sisters. Newell learned enough basic medical skills to earn himself the moniker of “Doc”. Both Newell and Meek were among the first American settlers to Oregon.
With more settlers coming into the land, the need for local government rose. One well-off settler, Ewing Young, died in 1841 without heirs. To settle his affairs, a group of settlers came together at Champoeg. Champeog was a small settlement on the French Prairie of the Willamette Valley about fifteen miles west of Oregon City. The settlers evenly split between French Canadians with previous Hudson’s Bay Company experience and newer settlers from the United States. The idea of civil government discussed with settlers split between a loose form – French Canadian position – and a more formal government headed by a governor. To accommodate all, a compromise was reached. A probate court of sorts with a high judge, clerk, sheriff and local justices of the peace were decided upon. A constitutional committee would discuss future measures.
POLITICAL MOUNTAIN MAN
Two years later, a Provisional Legislature was voted for on 2 May 1843. This time the French Canadians were outvoted slightly. Newell served on the committee involved in coming up with a draft for a working government. Laws laid out following plans found within Iowa’s Organic Law Acts and the US Congressional Ordinance of 1787. This gave the region three branches of government with four districts and an Executive Committee in place of a Governor.
The Provisional Government did not work well until a second Organic Code became adopted a year later in 1845. This allowed for taxation, internal improvements and a governor. At the time, no settlers north of the Columbia River got involved in the discussions or government. The lands to the north remained still pretty much HBC controlled. Newell was one of those voting for the Provisional Government becoming the Speaker of the Provisional Legislature in 1847. He served until the Oregon Territorial Legislature replaced the Provisional in 1849.
The Newell’s resettled at Champoeg – their house renovated serves as a centerpiece for the State Park there today. His first wife died there in 1845. Govenor Abernethy appointed Newell as one of the peace commissioners after the Whitman murders. He was able to keep the Nez Perce from joining arms with the Cayuse.
INDIAN AGENT
He served as Indian agent for tribes south of the Columbia River in Oregon after his time as peace commissioner. Following a year’s hiatus in the goldfields of California, He returned to help officially plat out the town of Champoeg. With Statehood, he served in the House of Representatives until a catastrophic flood in 1861 almost wiped away Champoeg.
With the flood, Newell moved to Lapwai. Here, he used his language skills as an interpreter and commissioner at an army outpost there from 1862 until 1868. Following a meeting in Washington, DC in 1868 between Newell, several Native chiefs and President Andrew Johnson, he gained appointment again as a federal Indian agent. He died 24 November 1860 back in Lapwai and lies in the Normal Hill Cemetery in nearby Lewiston, Idaho.
Joel Palmer
Like Peter Skene Ogden, Joel Palmer was born in Canada. His family had emigrated in 1803 but returned to the New York following the War of 1812. From Philadelphia, Palmer moved with a second wife – his first having died – to Laurel, Indiana, halfway between Indianapolis and Cincinnati. Here, he worked contracting for canal building projects and serving two terms in the state legislature.
He came west to Oregon in 1845 publishing his travails in Journal of Travels. The book became a popular travel guide to the Oregon Trail after its publishing in 1847. On the first trip, he helped scout out the wagon route around the south side of Mt Hood which became the Barlow Trail. Palmer went back to Indiana bringing his family out the following year settling in the Yamhill Valley in 1847.
He served as commissary general for the Oregon Rifles as they geared in early 1847 following the Whitman killings. Following his tenure as a peace commissioner, he served as Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Provisional Government in 1848. He continued in the same role with the Territorial Government from 1853 to 1856. Palmer helped to negotiate eleven treaties before seen as too attached to Native sensibilities by other settlers. He was dismissed in 1856.
LIFE AFTER WAR
Helping to develop an overland trail to goldfields in British Columbia in 1858, he returned to Oregon to serve in the House of Representatives in 1862, serving as Speaker of the House. Moving to the Oregon Senate from 1864-1868, Palmer almost became a US Senator in 1866. He lost narrowly an election for governor in 1870. Then accepted an appointment as Indian Agent at the Siletz Reservation in 1871. He resigned less than two years later, however. Palmer became disappointed with a bureaucracy impeding help he tried to give for the Siletz people.
Dying in 1881, Palmer lies buried with his wife in Dayton, Oregon, a town he helped found. His former house on the outskirts of town serves as an upscale restaurant since 1996.
Henry A. G. Lee
Serving both as a militia commander with the Oregon Rifles and as a peace commissioner, Henry A. G. Lee came from the extended Lee family of Virginia. He came west as part of John Fremont’s army expedition of 1843. Ending up settling in Oregon, Lee gained election to the Provisional Legislature in 1845 serving as Speaker during one session. Lee also became the second editor of the Oregon Spectator, in 1846, the region’s first newspaper. That office was short-lived working on only nine bi-weekly issues.
Following the Whitman murders, after Governor Abernathy called for volunteers to potentially fight against the Cayuse. Lee volunteered becoming captain of a fifty-man unit dispatched immediately east to defend the Methodist mission at Wascopam – The Dalles. The men formed up on 8 December 1847 purchasing supplies from HBC Fort Vancouver two days later. The volunteers pledged their own credit when HBC would not extend credit to the Provisional Government.
SOLDIER TO PEACE BARTERER
Lee’s force arrived 21 December driving off a band of Native Americans who were able to steal 300 head of cattle. They established a small fort and awaited further reinforcements from the Willamette Valley. These men arrived in February 1848 under Colonel Cornelius Gilliam. Lee became third in command of the Oregon Rifles as they set out for the Whitman mission at Waiilatpu. At the same time, Lee became one of the three peace commissioners – Gilliam served as well at times.
He returned west with the body of men Colonel Gilliam was leading to gain more supplies. After Gilliam accidently shot and killed himself, Lee brought Gilliam’s body back to Oregon City. Abernathy promoted him to colonel to take Gilliam’s place. Back at Waiilatpu, Lee found that Lieutenant Colonel James Waters had already elected as Colonel by the men, so he resigned taking the second position instead.
Back in the Willamette Valley, Lee served a short stint as superintendent for Indian Affairs and was off to the Californian gold fields in 1849. Mining proved a success with Lee returning to Oregon to set up a store in Oregon City. He shipped off to New York to buy supplies for his store, dying on the return journey in 1851 of yellow fever acquired in Panama.
OTHERS
Joseph Meek
One of the West’s more colorful characters, Joseph Meek was fond of saying later in life, “I want to live long enough to see Oregon securely American … so I can say that I was born in Washington County, United States (western Virginia), and I died in Washington County, United States (Oregon).”
Through his life, he lived a full life enjoying a reputation of storyteller covering his exploits as a fur trapper, pioneer, sheriff-marshall and legislator. Married three times to Native American women, his first wife killed by enemy Natives. His second wife left him because of his drinking. The third wife, Virginia – sister to the woman married to Robert Newell – lived with him until Meek’s death in 1875. Meek moved to Missouri when he was only 16. Two years later, he signed up – along with Newell – with Jedediah Smith, David Jackson and William Sublette, three mountain men all among the “Ashley’s Hundred”, bought their former employer William Henry Ashley’s Rocky Mountain Fur Company – 1826.
That company failed in 1834, absorbed into the American Fur Company – formerly owned by John Jacob Astor. Meek continued working with the new company throughout the West until 1840 when, with Newell, the two decided to head for Oregon to start a new life farming, “the fur trade is dead in the Rocky Mountains, and it is no place for us, if it ever was.”
FUR TRADE TO FARMER
With his Nez Perce wife, Virginia, Newell and his family, Caleb Wilkins and family plus the Nez Perce wife of George Ebbert – another sister of Virginia – they met up at Fort Hall (Idaho). Newell and Wilkins had been serving as guides for a group of unaffiliated missionaries – Harvey Clarke, Philo Littlejohn, Alvin T. Smith – on their way to the Whitman Mission. Newell took a harness and two wagons for pay at the fort, selling one and hiring Meek to drive the other to Waiilatpu.
Starting late – 27 September 1840 – they made the rugged journey being among the first to journey with wagons over the route which soon became the Emigrant Road. After a warm welcome at Waiilatpu, where Meek left the care of his young daughter, Helen Mar, to the Whitmans, they pushed on to the Hudson’s Bay Fort Walla Walla where they left their wagon for the winter. They pushed down the Columbia arriving in December camping first at Oregon City, then pushing on into the Tualatin Valley to select land for their farms. (They returned to put the wagon on a boat bringing it downriver the following year).
Meek, Newell, Wilkins, and Ebbert all put down roots not far from each other in an area today on the fringe of still farm land and urban development. Newell moved further south to Champoeg later, but the others are all buried in plots near the Donation Land Claims the men and their families settled upon.
POLITICIAN
All the men took part in the meetings at Champoeg leading to the development of the Provisional Government. Meek became the Sheriff which included census taking and tax collecting (scarcity of coins meant currency was often in the form of wheat) among his other duties.
With the killings at Waiilatpu, Meek quickly volunteered for duty against the Cayuse, especially since his daughter died shortly after the killings, though from measles. Made a captain and soon tabbed by Governor Abernethy to deliver the news of the murders at Waiilatpu and to deliver a petition from settlers in Oregon for government protection.
Meek set out with Ebbert, and John Owens after helping bury the Whitman dead. Leaving 17 December from Waiilatpu meant crossing the Rocky Mountains in mid-winter. To help with possible further trouble with Natives encountered along the way, Meek wore the red belt and Canadian cap worn by HBC employees to help disguise themselves.
MESSENGER
Making the difficult trip, they arrived in St. Joseph, Missouri 4 May 1848 and proceeded by steamboat and rail to Washington, D.C. from there. Dirty, in ragged clothes, Meek was met with open ears as he told his tales of the Rockies and Oregon. President Polk met with Meek – Meek was a second cousin to Polk’s wife – and shortly thereafter, Congress finally passed legislation making Oregon a territory in August 1848. Meek, by the way, became Marshall for the Territory, an office he held for the next five years.
Meek returned to Oregon the following year. This time he was accompanied by the new territorial governor, Joseph Lane. During the Yakama War – 1855-1859 – Meek served again with the Oregon militia gaining the rank of colonel. Meek’s troops did not see any serious action during the encounters.
He was a Democrat, but pro-Union. While not taking part in the Civil War, he did help prepare the ground for the Republican party in Oregon during the war. He collaborated on a biography The River of the West with Francis Fuller Victor in 1870 replete with many of his tales of life as a mountain man. His last years were spent giving lecture in promotion of his book. Meek died June 1875 and lies buried in the Old Scotch Church Cemetery not far from his homestead.
NATIVE LEADERS
Peo-peo-mox-mox
Leading chief of the Walla Walla tribes, Peo-peo-mox-mox translates into Yellow Bird. The Walla Walla tribes lived next to the Cayuse, though like the Palouse further north, the Umatilla to the west and the Yakama to the northwest, the Walla Walla spoke a Sahaptin dialect. The Cayuse were more linguistically related to the Nez Perce whose language is considered a related, but separate language from the Walla Walla.
The Walla Wallas got into cattle raising after Peo-peo-mox-mox’s son, Toayahnu, observed the successes of the Willamette Cattle Company of Ewing Young during his years of living on the Methodist Mission of Jason Lee. Native Americans of the Columbia Plateau only began to obtain horses in the Eighteenth Century. Horses provided the tribes with mobility they did not possess before.
CATTLE BUSINESS – PART 1
Peo-peo-mox-mox led two cattle buying trips to California in 1844 and 1846. On the first trip, others going with him included his son along with 35-50 others embracing members not only from the Walla Walla, but Nez Perce and Spokane. Elk, beaver and deer furs exchanged for the cattle from John Sutter.
While negotiations were ongoing in California, some of the Native party went out to hunt deer and elk in order to purchase more cows. They ran into a group with a skirmish ensuing. No one from the Natives sufered injury and they gained some of the horses and mules from the party they chased away. One of the mules was recognized by one of the American settlers who demanded restitution. Toayahnu told him fetch his mule while he held a loaded rifle. The American let it go that day, but cornered Toayahnu a couple days later killing him.
Peo-peo-mox-mox’s party left the area after this leaving the cattle behind. The death of his son led to a wave of general unrest among the Plateau tribes with a desire for revenge that went unfulfilled.
CATTLE BUSINESS – PART 2
A second trip occurred two years later. Peo-peo-mox-mox may have had intentions of reclaiming the cattle through battle, but the Mexican War was ongoing at the time. There were nearly 300 Californian Natives and 150 whites assembled in anticipation of the Plateau tribesmen who numbered only forty warriors. Hostilities averted, cattle were purchased – almost two thousand – and compensation gained covering previous grievances.
Besides the cattle, the group brought back measles to the Plateau. The epidemic spread to the Cayuse with particularly deadly results, especially among the children. Those deaths would be a tipping point leading to the Whitman murders at Waiilatpu.
CAYUSE WAR AND LATER
Peo-peo-mox-mox kept the Walla Walla neutral during the Cayuse War. He gave no sanctuary for the Cayuse tribesmen who committed the crimes, but also took no active actions. The treaties of 1855 were another matter. Peo-peo-mox-mox nor his fellow tribesmen were not happy to be forced onto a reservation. He was a leading force behind the initial Native uprising – Yakama War.
4 December 1855, a large group of Oregon militia moved up the Walla Walla valley. Peo-peo-mox-mox offered himself up as a hostage to calm hostilities down, though Governor Isaac Stevens, the author of the 1855 treaties, wrote Peo-peo-mox-mox gave himself up to enable his people time to escape from the oncoming militiamen. An all-day battle between the militiamen and Natives took place on 7 December. During the fight, an attempt was made to bind Peo-peo-mox-mox and four other men who had accompanied their chief. A knife was pulled by one of the Natives and all five were killed and scalped. The battle continued through the next day with almost five hundred Natives from several tribes fought losing almost fifty dead. Two days later, the Natives withdrew when two reinforcing companies of militiamen arrived. Peo-peo-mox-mox’s death did little to halt the Yakama War which would smolder on until 1859.
Five Crows – Achekaia
Five Crows – Achekaia – was one of the principal chiefs of the Cayuse tribes. A half-brother to Tuekakas, a Nez Perce chief, and brother-in-law to Peo-peo-mox-mox, Five Crows was the richest of the Cayuse with over 1,000 horses. His tribe lived on the lower Umatilla River near another led by Weatenatemany – Young Chief. Along with the horses, he counted many cows in his account along with slaves and five wives.
DESIRES
While he held many things, one he desired was a white wife. At one HBC fort, he asked for the hand of one of the HBC officers’ daughters in marriage. Rebuffed, the desire seems to have lingered. Five Crows tribe was not involved in the Whitman murders. In the aftermath, however, Five Crows forced one of the young female hostages, Esther Lorinda Bewley, to spend each night in his lodge. Only the fear of white retribution through armed intervention caused him to allow her release and others held by his tribe for safekeeping after the killings late in December 1847.
BATTLE OF SAND HOLLOWS
The killings drew a large response from the white settler communities in the Willamette Valley with the formation of a 500+ militia force being sent to the Walla Walla valley to find those responsible for the murders. The Cayuse drew together with a few Native allies to keep the militia force from crossing the Umatilla River into the heart of the Cayuse lands. 24 February 1848, Five Crows was one of the Cayuse leaders fighting that day. He shouted out to his men; bullets could not hurt him. Another Cayuse shaman, Grey Eagle, shouted he would eat all the bullets fired at him. To prove their point, the two charged headlong at the militiamen igniting the battle. Alas, the boasts quickly fell disproven. Grey Eagle was shot in the head while Five Crows in the arm.
Temporarily confused by the fall of two of their leaders, the Natives attacked several times trying to get at the supply wagons of the militiamen but were repulsed. A nine-pound cannon brought along by the militia fired out twice doing little damage in the way of causing casualties. The noise, however, disconcerted the Natives who fell back. The fight lasted three hours until nearly sundown. An indecisive battle, the Natives disappointed in not gaining an expected victory, instead suffered eight deaths. With victory denied, other potential allies for the Cayuse backed away in neutrality. Within the tribes of the Cayuse, discord rose up with some bands not involved in the Whitman killings desiring to search for a peaceful end.
AFTERMATH
During the next couple days, the militiamen drove across the Umatilla. The Nez Perce led by Peo-peo-mox-mox reiterated their neutrality as militia reached Waiilatpu. The Cayuse left in the fight regrouped along the Touchet River as the militiamen worked to fortify the mission grounds while burying the dead.
4 March saw Joseph Meek setting out for Washington, D.C. in his HBC disguise. A couple days later, a council was opened with the peace commissioners explaining the purpose of their foray. They had come only to capture those responsible for the killings at Waiilatpu. In the end, the peace commissioners were unable to convince those responsible to be given up, but they did split the Cayuse tribes up. That especially so after the militia continued to chase those Cayuse still fighting into several small bands. They also “appropriated” horses, cattle and caches of food from the Cayuse.
A NEW CHIEF?
Five Crows survived the war. He hoped to be named the new overall chief following the death of Tauitau 3 September 1853. Five Crows had been a favorite of the HBC traders at Fort Walla Walla. The chief trader there, Andrew Pambrun, said since the Cayuse could not choose outright a new leader – most favored Tauitau’s nephew Weatenatenamy – they should pick Five Crows.
Robert Thompson, newly appointed Indian Agent for Natives east of the Cascades, objected knowing Five Crows to be particularly “obnoxious” to white settlers. Joel Palmer, now the Superintendent for Indian Affairs in the territory advised Thompson that while HBC could be expected to compete for Native trade, it was not allowed to insert itself into political affairs, especially with Five Crows who was “regarded in no other light than an enemy to the people and government of the United States.” Weatenatenamy eventually was chosen, and he took his uncle’s English name of Young Chief, as well.
YAKAMA WAR
A new war brewed following Isaac Stevens’ unpopular 1855 treaties and constant movements of whites across the Native lands. Five Crows tried to bring the Nez Perce in on the side of the Cayuse and now, the Walla Walla – Peo-peo-mox-mox had also tired of whites moving across his lands, as well as gettng shunted off to a reservation. The Cayuse fought in a series of raids in the early of 1856 though by May, driven by a new militia force, they began to send out peace feelers. Stevens was not keen, however, noting Five Crows to be one of the “most vindicative enemies of the whites, and one of the original instigators of the war.”
Colonel George Wright came onto the scene that fall. He was able to calm the situation somewhat noting the treaties were not yet in effect and federal troops would keep whites off Native lands. That calm would rupture though the Cayuse suffered a reduction in power from loss of horses and people from flights incurred in the previous years and predations suffered from Snake tribe incursions. The reconnaissance mission of Colonel Edward Steptoe in May 1858 led to bands of Natives rising up to attack and chase the party back to Fort Walla Walla. Native tribesmen came from the Spokane, Couer d’Alene, Palouse, and Sinkiuse tribes with only a token few from the Cayuse.
LONG TWILIGHT
In response, Wright launched a more significant expedition to punish those responsible. After defeating the tribesmen at Four Lakes and Spokane Plains in early September, returning to Fort Walla Walla, he warned the Cayuse and Walla Walla further murders would bring severe punishment. Disease and war had reduced the Cayuse tribes – never that populous to begin with – in size and power. Stevens’ treaties gained ratification by Congress 8 March 1859, though the removal of the Cayuse to the new reservation to be shared with Umatilla and Walla Walla tribes did not come about until December of the next year.
Five Crows appears next as an old man in a set of pictures taken by Thomas L. Moorhouse around 1900. He died two years later, his body found near Athena, Oregon.
CAYUSE FIVE
Once hostilities began, Cayuse chiefs faced the problem of ending them. The Provisional Government demanded surrender of those responsible for the murders at the Whitman mission at Waiilatpu. Two inconsequential skirmishes took place between the Oregon Rifles militia force and different Native contingents centered around Cayuse members, but men from neighboring tribes, as well. Both sides came with about the same numbers arrayed. Lots of weapon’s fire exchanged, with only a few casualties.
The militia managed to scatter about the Cayuse tribes, but soon after reaching the Cayuse homeland many had to return for lack of supplies and needs to take place on their own farms in the Willamette Valley. Natives realized while most of the militia men left the threat of actual troops from the east lay over their heads.
And, the next year, a couple of companies of the Regiment of Mounted Rifles came through the Cayuse country on their way to Fort Vancouver. The new Territorial Governor, Joseph Lane, also showed up accompanied by Joseph Meek. Faced with Federal troops and a constant flow in the late summer through fall of immigrants, the Cayuse decided to accede to the settler demands of giving up participants in the murders.
MURDERS OR SAVIORS
Chief Tiloukaikt led the tribe from which the murderers came from. He was one of the original Cayuse chiefs welcoming the missionaries into the Walla Walla Valley. Over the years, relations worsened and Tiloukaikt was among those present at Waiilatpu during the murders. He helped distract Marcus while Tomahas delivered the fatal blow with the tomahawk. Asked why the five came forward, Tiloukaikt replied, “Did not your missionaries teach us that Christ died to save his people? So we die to save our people.” Other sources lay the quote to another of the Five, Tomahas.
The five men were taken to Oregon City. After a short trial in a tavern out on Abernethy Island, the five found guilty, were hanged 5 June 1850. The others of the Five included Klokomas – involved with the murder of John Sager, Isaiaschalakis – who shot at Narcissa Whitman and helped kill others, and Kiamasumkin – another of Mrs. Whitman’s assailants. The Cayuse claimed that the five were the only surviving assailant with the others dying from subsequent events to the Waiilatpu murders.
AFTERMATH
The death of the Cayuse Five did not serve to quiet the situation in the east. Both sides would continue to raid each other. Native Americans found themselves limited in their ability to find ammunition and powder for their guns. Effects of the measles, especially with half of the children dying, and increased numbers of immigrants continued to leave relations unsettled. This would lead to the larger Yakama War in 1855 with the results of Native Americans forced to accept terms limiting them to reservations. Those lands would continue to shrink over the next half century.
Of the Five, they lie buried in unmarked graves. Recent attempts have tried to locate their bodies for return to the tribes. A new monument was hoped for atop the McLoughlin Promenade sitting high above Willamette Falls. The Grande Ronde tribes have objected, however. The Promenade is a former burying ground for their tribes. They also bought the industrial site just below the Falls with big plans to rebuild the former land. Those plans stayed presently by the ongoing discussions between tribes and other governmental entities involved.