In 1847, the missionary Dr. Marcus Whitman, his wife, and 11 others were killed by members of the Cayuse tribe near present-day Walla Walla, Washington. A final response to years of frustration with the Whitmans, the event recorded in Western history as the 'Whitman Massacre' was a tipping point in American expansion, leading Congress to make the Oregon Country an official U.S. territory. Exposing the self-serving nature of American myth-making, Murder at the Mission reminds us of the dark realities of American expansion and of the lies that can persist when history is told only by victors.
About the book
In 1847, the missionary Dr. Marcus Whitman, his wife, and 11 others were killed by members of the Cayuse tribe near present-day Walla Walla, Washington. A final response to years of frustration with the Whitmans, the event recorded in Western history as the 'Whitman Massacre' was a tipping point in American expansion, leading Congress to make the Oregon Country an official U.S. territory. Exposing the self-serving nature of American myth-making, Murder at the Mission reminds us of the dark realities of American expansion and of the lies that can persist when history is told only by victors.