WAGON RUTS ON THE OLD OREGON TRAIL – ECHO MEADOWS-CORRAL SPRINGS

Wagon ruts across the sands and sage of the Columbia Plateau at Echo Meadows.
Wagon ruts across the sands and sage of the Columbia Plateau at Echo Meadows.

Following the deaths at the Whitman Mission in December 1847, emigrants travelling the Oregon Trail elected to bypass the jaunt of the trail to the north following the descent out of the Blue Mountains.  Instead, the new path led down the Umatilla River before heading out across the dry Columbia Plateau roughly parallel to the river about 6-8 miles to the south.

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PLAYERS OF THE CAYUSE WAR REVISITED

Cayuse men on horseback – from Lee Moorhouse photo collection – University of Oregon Special Digital Collections; photo is from about 1900.

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.

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REVISITING THE “CAYUSE WAR” – MURDER, REVENGE AND A NEW TERRITORY

Print from a wood-engraving by N. Orr & Co., originally published in Frances Fuller Victor’s, The River of the West, circa 1870.

Early relationships between European newcomers and Native Americans living in the Pacific Northwest certainly went no better than in most other regions of the Americas.  European supremacy became much easier through early introduction of disease, an actual prelude in many cases to actual ethnic introductions.  Bad as the era directly before the two peoples came together face to face was, disease continued to inflict the Native populations, a factor leading directly to ill will and what became known as the “Cayuse War” in 1847.

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