What is CAYUSE WAR? What does CAYUSE WAR mean? CAYUSE WAR meaning, definition & explanation

Experience FAST and SECURE Internet browsing with The Audiopedia owned Android browser. INSTALL NOW - http://bit.ly/2Sm5bi0 What is CAYUSE WAR? What does CAYUSE WAR mean? CAYUSE WAR meaning - CAYUSE WAR definition - CAYUSE WAR explanation. Source: Wikipedia.org article, adapted under http://bit.ly/yjiNZw license. The Cayuse War was an armed conflict that took place in the Northwestern United States from 1847 to 1855 between the Cayuse people of the region and the United States Government and local American settlers. Caused in part by the influx of disease and settlers to the region, the immediate start of the conflict occurred in 1847 when the Whitman Massacre took place at the Whitman Mission near present day Walla Walla, Washington when fourteen people were killed in and around the mission. Over the next few years the Provisional Government of Oregon and later the United States Army battled the Indians east of the Cascades. This was the first of several wars between the Indians and American settlers in that region that would lead to the negotiations between the United States and Indians of the Columbia Plateau, creating a number of Indian reservations. In 1836, two missionaries—Marcus and Narcissa Whitman—founded the Whitman Mission among the Cayuse Indians at Waiilatpu, six miles west of present-day Walla Walla, Washington. In addition to evangelizing, the missionaries established schools and grist mills and introduced crop irrigation. Their work advanced slowly until in 1842, Marcus Whitman convinced the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to provide support. Returning the following year, he joined approximately a thousand settlers traveling to Oregon Country. The sudden influx of American settlers led to an escalation of tension between natives and settlers, which owed much to cultural misunderstandings and mutual hostilities. For instance, the Cayuse believed that to plow the ground was to desecrate the spirit of the Earth. The settlers, as agriculturalists, naturally did not accept this. The Cayuse expected payment from wagon trains passing through their territory and eating the wild food on which the tribes depended; the settlers did not understand this and instead drove away the men sent to exact payment, in the belief that they were merely "beggars". The new settlers brought diseases with them. In 1847 an epidemic of measles killed half the Cayuse. The Cayuse suspected that Marcus Whitman—a practicing physician and religious leader, hence a shaman—was responsible for the deaths of their families, causing the disaster to make way for new immigrants. Seeking revenge, Cayuse tribesmen attacked the mission on November 29, 1847. Fourteen settlers were killed, including both of the Whitmans. Most of the buildings at Waiilatpu were destroyed. The site is now a National Historic Site. For several weeks, 53 women and children were held captive before eventually being released. This event, which became known as the Whitman Massacre, precipitated the Cayuse War. The Provisional Legislature of Oregon and Governor George Abernethy called for "immediate and prompt action," and authorized the raising of companies of volunteers to go to war, if necessary, against the Cayuse Tribe. A fifty person unit of volunteers was raised immediately and dispatched to The Dalles under the command of Henry A. G. Lee. Called the Oregon Rifles, they were formed on December 8, 1847, and then gathered at Fort Vancouver on December 10, where they purchased supplies from the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) post. The HBC would not extend credit to the Provisional Government, therefore the volunteer soldiers each pledged their individual credit to purchase supplies with the expectation that the government would repay them at a later time. The group was to protect the Wascopam Mission at The Dalles and prevent any hostile forces from reaching the Willamette Valley. In addition, the governor appointed a peace commission, consisting of Joel Palmer, Lee, and Robert Newell. The Oregon Rifles marched to The Dalles, arriving on December 21. Upon arriving there, they drove off a band of Indians, but not before the natives stole 300 head of cattle. There the troops built a stockade and named the post Fort Lee for the commander, though the small fortification was also called Fort Wascopam. In January 1848, a force of over 500 militiamen led by Colonel Cornelius Gilliam (who did not approve of the peace commission) marched against the Cayuse and other native inhabitants of central Oregon. These troops arrived at Fort Lee in February, and with a larger force, the militia forces pressed east towards the Whitman Mission. By March 4 the forces reached the mission after a battle at Sand Hollows. After reaching the mission, Col....