In this monthly series, we’ll explore the history of the Catholic
Church in the Pacific Northwest from pioneer beginnings to the present
day. The series will highlight important places of faith in the
Northwest, the “holy ground” where the seeds of faith have been planted
in our midst. --
Corinna Laughlin
Part 8, October 11, 2020
THE SHORT-LIVED DIOCESE OF WALLA WALLA
ABOVE: Tiloukaikt, one of the chiefs of the Cayuse, painted by
Paul Kane. CENTER: Dr. Marcus Whitman. BELOW: Father J. B. A.
Brouillet, Vicar General of the Diocese of Walla Walla.
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Bishop A. M. A. Blanchet had prepared for his new duties and his
new diocese as systematically as he could. He recruited priests and
other helpers to assist him in establishing the Church in the wilds of
Walla Walla; he raised a considerable amount of money to enable him to
buy land and build churches; and he followed all the best advice about
the Oregon Trail.
But nothing went
according to plan. His party’s relatively late departure meant that
there was insufficient grass for the cattle to graze on along the Oregon
Trail; many animals starved, and the twelve yoke of oxen Blanchet
started with soon dwindled down to so few that heavier items—including
the all-important plow—had to be abandoned along the way. “From Fort
Hall to Walla Walla there were no less than a hundred wagons abandoned
on the road because there were no more beasts to pull them,” Blanchet
wrote to the Bishop of Toronto. And travel turned out to be far more
expensive than Blanchet anticipated. By the time he arrived in Walla
Walla, he had spent almost all he had: “Farewell then, to the hope of
beginning the episcopal establishment with the money subscribed by
Quebec and Montreal; one must live while awaiting such help as may come
from France.”
When he spoke of help from France,
Blanchet was alluding to the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, a
mission society established by French laywoman Pauline Jaricot, which
later became an official agency of the Vatican. Little did Blanchet know
that within a few months, the 1848 Revolution would see barricades rise
in the streets of Paris and Louis Philippe fall from power. It would be
a long time before the much-needed funds could reach the struggling
Church in the Pacific Northwest. Without cash, Blanchet could only hope
to purchase land and build churches if he could secure a credit advance
from the Hudson’s Bay Company at Fort Walla Walla. The almost total
lack of funds was not Blanchet’s only difficulty. Less than three weeks
after his arrival in Walla Walla, Blanchet received a visit from Dr.
Marcus Whitman.
In the fall of 1847, Whitman
was one of the best-known figures in the American west. A Methodist
missionary as well as a medical doctor, Whitman had arrived in
Waiilatpu, six miles west of present-day Walla Walla, eleven years
earlier. He established a mission among the Cayuse and at the time of
Blanchet’s arrival was planning to start a new mission in the Dalles, in
Oregon. Whitman’s success had been mixed; indeed, he seemed to be more
effective at bringing new white settlers to the region than in
converting the indigenous people. In hindsight, part of the challenge
was Whitman’s insistence that the native peoples adopt farming,
abandoning not only their religious practice, but their whole way of
life. When Bishop Blanchet arrived, frayed relationships were reaching
their breaking point, especially as Dr. Whitman was powerless to treat
an epidemic of cholera and measles among the Cayuse, who were dying in
great numbers.
The frustrated Whitman,
however, placed the blame on the advent of other missionaries,
especially the Catholics. As A. M. A. Blanchet wrote to his brother, the
Archbishop of Oregon City, “It was on September 23rd, at Fort Walla
Walla, that I first saw Dr. Whitman. He showed much displeasure at my
arrival to these reaches. He spoke of religion…. that he didn’t like
Catholics; and for this reason, would come to our aid with food only if
we were starving.” In his account, Father J. B. A. Brouillet, Blanchet’s
vicar general, recalled Whitman’s words: “I know very well for what
purpose you have come.” To which Blanchet replied: “All is known… I come
to labor for the conversion of the Indians, and even of Americans, if
they are willing to listen to me.”
This was a rude awakening to the
realities of missionary life in Walla Walla. The Bishop persisted,
nevertheless. He directed Father Ricard and the Oblates to establish a
mission west of the Columbia River, while he and Brouillet ministered to
the Cayuse on the east. Their chilly reception by the whites
notwithstanding, the priests found a warm welcome from the native
people. The Oblates were soon building St. Rose Mission among the
Yakima, and Blanchet was heartened by the welcome he received from the
Cayuse, who readily invited him to make a home among them.
Blanchet and Brouillet visited
Tiloukaikt, a Cayuse chief, on November 8. Tiloukaikt told them that the
spot he had in mind for them was Dr. Whitman’s mission at Waiilatpu – he
intended to send Whitman away. In some dismay, they declined this offer,
and instead established St. Anne’s Mission on the Umatilla River, about
25 miles from Waiilatpu.
Just a day or two after St. Anne’s
mission was established, Father Brouillet rode to Waiilatpu to baptize
some infants at Tiloukaikt’s invitation. He arrived in the early evening
of November 30, only to discover the bodies of Marcus and Narcissa
Whitman and a dozen others, lying where they had fallen in the massacre
which had taken place the previous day. A few surviving women and about
30 children were confined nearby, terrified hostages. “I passed the
night without scarcely closing my eyes,” Father Brouillet wrote, and in
the morning, did what he could to comfort the living, which was very
little: “The sight of those persons caused me to shed tears, which,
however, I was obliged to conceal, for I was the greater part of the day
in the presence of the murderers, and closely watched by them, and if I
had shown too marked an interest in behalf of the sufferers, it would
only have endangered their lives and mine.” With another man who had
been spared in the massacre, Brouillet helped to wash and bury the
bodies of the Whitmans and the other victims. The situation was
incredibly volatile. Brouillet, under constant scrutiny from the Cayuse
men who had perpetrated the massacre, risked his own life to warn
Protestant missionary Henry Spalding. The white settlers wanted to
avenge the deaths of the Whitman party and to release the captives; the
Cayuse chiefs wanted to avoid war with the whites. Bishop Blanchet found
himself in the middle of the dispute, listening to the grievances and
concerns of the Cayuse chiefs, who had not directed the massacre, though
they well understood why it had happened. Blanchet wrote up terms for
peace on their behalf, which were then delivered to Fort Walla Walla by
Father Brouillet.
For a time, it seemed as if peace
might be possible. The hostages were released to Fort Walla Walla on
December 29. Bishop Blanchet accompanied them to Oregon City, where he
intended to plead for a peaceful resolution to the crisis before
Territorial Governor George Abernethy. But the Governor had already
authorized the formation of volunteer militias to defend white
settlements, and before Blanchet reached Oregon, armed volunteers under
the direction of Colonel George Gilliam were marching towards Waiilatpu.
Father Brouillet, meanwhile, remained at the mission in Umatilla, still
hoping that war might be averted. But fear and misinformation were
rampant on both sides, and fighting broke out on February 19, 1848. The
next day, Father Brouillet abandoned St. Anne’s Mission and sought
safety at Fort Walla Walla. There he was joined by the Oblates, and the
whole party followed Bishop Blanchet to Oregon. Less than six months
after their arrival in Walla Walla, the priests were gone. The Oblates
would return, briefly, but St. Anne’s Mission at Umatilla was burned to
the ground.
The “Cayuse War,” as it is called,
dragged on for months. Those who had perpetrated the massacre were dead,
but white settlers would not accept this. In 1850, five Cayuse chiefs,
none of whom had been present at the massacre, surrendered themselves.
In doing so, they hoped to secure peace for the Cayuse. In spite of the
lack of evidence, they were tried, condemned, and hanged. Among
them was Tiloukaikt, who had been one of the first to welcome Bishop
Blanchet to the Northwest. Before he was hanged, he said, “Did not your
missionaries teach us that Christ died to save his people? So we die to
save our people.”
—Corinna Laughlin, Pastoral Assistant for Liturgy
Works Consulted:
Brouillet, J. B. A. Authentic Account of the Murder of Dr. Whitman
and Other Missionaries by the Cayuse Indians of Oregon in 1847, and the
Causes which Led to that Horrible Catastrophe. Second Edition, 1869.
Printed in Portland, Oregon. Courtesy of the Archives of the Archdiocese
of Seattle.
Brown, Roberta Stringham, and Patricia O’Connell Killen, editors.
Selected Letters of A. M. A. Blanchet, Bishop of Walla Walla and
Nesqualy. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2013. Schoenberg,
Wilfrid, SJ. A History of the Catholic Church in the Pacific Northwest,
1743-1983. Washington, DC: Pastoral Press, 1987.
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