01Biography
Travelled west with her husband Henry Spalding in 1836, alongside the Whitmans, to found a Presbyterian mission among the Nez Perce at Lapwai in present-day Idaho. Eliza learned to speak Nez Perce, taught literacy, and helped translate Christian scripture into the Nez Perce language using a small printing press shipped overland. She had four children on the mission field.
02Why they matter
First European-American woman, with Narcissa Whitman, to cross the Rockies overland. Produced the first printed material in the Nez Perce language.
03How they died
Survived the 1847 Whitman attack. She and her family were at the Lapwai mission, about 110 miles east, and were warned in time to flee under Nez Perce protection. She died in 1851 in the Willamette Valley of tuberculosis at the age of 43, worn down by years of mission work and the journey east after Lapwai was closed.
04Legacy
The Spalding-Allen Collection of Nez Perce artefacts she preserved is now held by the Nez Perce National Historical Park.