Missionary Wife: Narcissa Whitman, Later Life
Whitman's Relations With The Indians and the Massacre
Apr 2, 2009
Narcissa knew that she was writing her journal and letters for probable public consumption as the party had received a substantial amount of publicity before they left Pittsburg and the journals and letters of pioneer women were bestsellers in the East. She mentioned in some of her first letters home the belief that her letters would not stay private. Both she and Eliza Spalding kept journals. Narcissa wrote of the daily experiences of life on the trail and did not engage in much deep contemplation or spiritual concerns other than to express gratitude for God’s mercies.
First Contact and Writings about Native Americans
She wrote only rarely about the natives until the party stopped at an Indian rendezvous at the South Pass of the Rocky Mountains where they spent 10 days in rest while the traders engaged in trade with the natives. In June, Narcissa reported that a large party of 200 Pawnee Indians rode with the party for a time. Narcissa reported that they had never seen white women before and they were fascinated by them, staring at them and grinning. Narcissa spoke well of the Pawnees and did not seem bothered by the attention. She wrote that they are “a noble Indian – large, athletic forms, dignified countenances, bespeaking an immortal existence within.” When they left the rendezvous a large party of about 200 Indians rode with them as far as Fort Fall in present day Idaho. During this time Narcissa observed the Indian women and pitied them, concluding that they “were complete slaves of their husbands.”
Arrival at Fort Vancouver and on to Walla Walla River
The party traveled first to Vancouver and stayed for a time while the men went up river to look for a suitable mission site. Narcissa had become pregnant during the trip and was resting. In November they set sail up the Columbia to their new home. Narcissa writes that their home sits on “a peninsula formed by the branches of the Walla Walla River, upon the base of which our house stands, on the sourtheast corner, near the shore of the main river.” The next spring, on Narcissa’s birthday, March 14, 1837, she gave birth to her daughter, Alice.
Death of Daughter, and Depression
Two and a half years later her daughter downed in the Walla Walla River which started a downward spiral of depression and illness. By 1840 Narcissa had changed her focus from ministering to the natives to caring for the 11 orphaned children she had in her custody. She no longer spoke well of the natives. They had become a burden, and Narcissa spoke often of her desire to have them separated from her space. Eventually she would not allow them in her home and the native men felt insulted by her commands to stay away. They were not use to being told what to do by a woman and they resented it.
Massacre of Marcus and Narcissa Whitman
This is perhaps why Narcissa was the only woman to be killed during the massacre while all the other women and the children were taken captive. And the manner in which she was killed indicates the anger that the men felt towards her as they mutilated her body. In the days leading up to the massacre Marcus Whitman received plenty of warnings. Verbal threats were made and friendly natives advised him to take his family and leave, but he could not bring himself to do so until he was asked directly by the people he felt he was serving to leave. Even when his own Missionary board ordered him to leave he refused, traveling to the East to change their minds, a goal he accomplished. It was during this year long absence form the mission that Narcissa, now without her husband, sank even deeper into despair as is reflected in her letters home.
Sources:
Narcissa Whitman, The Letters of Narcissa Whitman, Ye Gallon Press, Fairfield, Ye Gallon Press, 1986)
Julie Jeffrey, Converting the West, A Biography of Narcissa Whitman (Norman, 1991)
Lucile Fargo, Spokane Story, (Northwestern Press, 1957)
Mary Saunders, The Whitman Massacre (Fairfield: Ye Gallon Press, 1977)
