The sudden death of "The Little White Cayuse," as the Indians called
her, seemed to estrange the Indians from the Mission. They almost
worshiped her, and came almost daily to see her and hear her sing the
Cayuse songs. The old Chief had many times said: "When I die I give
everything I have to the 'Little White Cayuse.'" From this time on the
Indians frequently showed a bad spirit. They saw the flocks and herds
of the Mission increasing, and the fields of waving grain, and began
to grow jealous and make demands that would have overtaxed and caused
fear in almost any other man than a Whitman.
Both before and after his memorable ride to Washington, his good
friend, Dr. McLoughlin, many times begged him to leave the Mission for
a while, until the Indians got in a better frame of mind. No man knew
the Indians so well as McLoughlin, and he saw the impending danger;
but no entreaties moved Whitman. Here was his life work and here he
would remain.
In these sketches there is no effort to tell the complete Oregon
Mission story, but only so much of it as will make clear the heroic
and patriotic services of Dr. and Mrs. Whitman. The reader will find a
most careful study of the whole broad field of pioneer mission work
upon the Pacific Coast in the Rev. Myron Eells' two books, the
"History of Indian Missions," and the "Biography of Rev. Cushing
Eells."
How much or how little the work of the Oregon Missionaries benefited
the Indians eternity alone will reveal. They simply obeyed the call
"to preach the gospel to every creature."
A train of circumstances, a series of evolutions in national history
which they neither originated nor could stop, were portending. But
that the Missionaries first of all saw the drift of coming events, and
wisely guided them to the peace and lasting good of the nation is as
plain as any page of written history.
With the light of that time, with the terrible massacre at Waiilatpui
in sight, it is not strange that good people felt that there had been
great sacrifice with small good results. All the years since have been
correcting such false estimates. The American Board and the Christian
people of the land have made their greatest mistake in not rallying to
the defense of their martyr heroes.
No "forty thousand dollars" ever spent by that organization before or
since has been so prolific in good. The argument to sustain this
assertion will be found in other sketches.
The United States Government could well afford to give a million
dollars every year to the American Board for fifty years to come, and
to endow Whitman College magnificently, and then not pay a moiety for
the benefit it has received as a nation, and never acknowledged.
The best possible answer of the church and of the friends of missions
to those who sneeringly ask, What good has resulted to the world for
all the millions spent on missions? is to point to that neglected
grave at Waiilatpui, and recite the story of heroism and patriotism of
Dr. Marcus Whitman.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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