A review by socraticgadfly
Murder at the Mission: A Frontier Killing, Its Legacy of Lies, and the Taking of the American West by Blaine Harden

challenging dark hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

Great book by Harden.

 

I knew the “textus receptus” of the myth of Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, and knew that Henry Spaulding had created it. I knew the basics of the reality but nothing more.

 

The reality? Marcus Whitman believed in manifest destiny and clearly threw his lot in with that, and with evangelizing white migrants to Oregon, after his 1843 midnight ride to back East.

 

Although the myth was first debunked more than a century ago, the debunking generally stopped there. Even though the Cayuses had good reason, in their lights, for attacking the Whitmans, the debunking didn’t focus on that.

 

Harden does. And, he looks at the resurgence of them and the other two tribes on the Umatilla Reservation today. Yes, it’s in fair part due to casino gambling. But, it’s also due to reclaiming some of their water rights and more. And, within the three tribes, the Cayuses are also focused on reclaiming their history. Harden talks to some of today’s Cayuses in the last chapters of the book. This is well-researched with many pages of footnotes, and well written.

 

Even before the Manifest Destiny part, unscrolling the original tale in order, per Harden’s research?

 

Methodist missionary Henry Kirke White Perkins, serving 160 miles west of Whitmans, noted the unsuitedness of Narcissa in particular on temperament and the Whites-first angle of Marcus, writing just 6 months after the trial of the five Cayuses, in a letter to Narcissa's sister. This ties in with Cayuse complaints about Whitmans profiting from living on their land, but paying no rent. 

Harden notes the martyr-like mentality of Narcissa from her early, pre-married, desire to be a missionary. Looks at letters and such from her as documenting this.

 

He also how depressed she became after loss of her toddler child, and seemingly never fully recovered. If she was unsuited before, she certainly was after this.

He also notes the racism of "extinguishment" of Indian land claims, as part of discussing Washington-Indian tribes relationships for 175 years.

 

Notes the ridiculousness of the various treaties by Gov. Stevens of Washington, next.

 

He also tackles the Calvinism of Spauldings and Whitmans and how that drove their particular missionizing mindset. He contrasts this to Catholicism of priests also doing conversions in area. Harden may oversell the Catholics' "letting civilization ride light" as well as letting the religious process ride light. The 1680 Pueblo Revolt, and the Spanish in California, show that the Franciscans, at least, where they could, did also consider civilizing part of converting. The "black robes" coming from France may have been more enlightened. But, they were also thinner in numbers. That’s not enough for a quarter-star ding; it’s a minor matter of note, though.

 

This by no means “spoils” the twists and turns of myth vs reality, nor of how the myth was used and sold in support of many issues.