01Summary
Renowned horse-breeders of the Columbia plateau. The 1847 measles epidemic killed roughly half the Cayuse children of the Walla Walla valley while sparing most settlers, and the attack on the Whitman Mission and the Cayuse War of 1847-55 that followed reshaped U.S. policy throughout the Northwest.
02History
The Cayuse, Liksiyu, were a small but influential Plateau nation, never more than a few hundred people, who controlled the strategic country between the Walla Walla and Umatilla rivers in present-day northeastern Oregon. They were among the first Plateau peoples to acquire horses, and bred a distinctive small, hardy horse that traders called a 'cayuse', the word that entered English.
Marcus and Narcissa Whitman founded a Presbyterian mission at Waiilatpu, in Cayuse country, in 1836. The relationship was uneasy from the start. Marcus's medical work, his attempts to convert the Cayuse to settled farming, and the growing emigrant traffic on the Oregon Trail all created friction. The 1847 measles epidemic, brought by emigrant wagons, killed roughly half the Cayuse children of the Walla Walla valley while killing very few settlers.
On 29 November 1847 Cayuse warriors attacked the mission, killing the Whitmans and eleven others. The Cayuse War of 1847-55 followed, and five Cayuse men were eventually surrendered for trial and executed in 1850. The war broke the Cayuse as an independent political nation. Survivors merged with the Walla Walla and Umatilla on the 1855 Umatilla Reservation.
03Notable leaders
- TiloukaiktCayuse chief, one of the five surrendered for trial in 1850 and hanged in Oregon City.
- Tomahas (Telokite)Cayuse warrior, surrendered and executed alongside Tiloukaikt.
04Today
Cayuse descendants are enrolled members of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Pendleton, Oregon, alongside Walla Walla and Umatilla relatives. The Tamástslikt Cultural Institute on the reservation is the only Native museum on the Oregon Trail.