Social Studies

Compare and Contrast

Cultural Differences Between the Missionaries and the Cayuse

The First People in Oregon

Comparing Indians of the Northwest

Fur Trappers and Traders

Mountain Men

Go West!!

People on the Trail

The Inland Fur Trade Company

Pioneer Life

The Missionaries

Oregon Trail -- Wagons Westward

Fort Vancouver -- The Inland Fur Trade

Discover the Columbia River!

COMPARE AND CONTRAST

There were many differences between the Indian and the Euro-Americans. By breaking your students into small groups you can assign them a topic and have them do research on their respective topics.

Suggestion: It might be a good idea to have various groups research an Indian version of life during the mission times (approximately 150 years ago) or the Euro-American version. Afterwards, the two versions could be presented, compared, and discussed. Writings and murals depicting various topics may also be shared with others in the class. Other topics of cultural differences and sample questions for students could include the following:

Shelter:

1. What was the primary difference between the Cayuse housing/shelter and that of the coastal or Plains Indians?
   
   
2. Why did Marcus Whitman use adobe material and not wooden materials for structures built at the mission site?
   
   
3. Describe the steps necessary to construct adobe bricks.
   
   
4. What is tule or bulrush? Where is it found? What is it used for?
   
   
5. Why did the Cayuse Indians live in temporary shelters?
   
   
6. Did the Cayuse Indians live in shelters during the entire year?

1. Did the Cayuse farm or cultivate any land?
   
   
2. What food did the Cayuse eat at different times/seasons of the year?
   
   
3. What did the pioneers eat on the trail?
   
   
4. How did the Indians make and maintain their fires? Was this method similar or different than the pioneers' method?
   
   
5. How much land did Whitman farm and what did he plant?
   
   
6. Why did Marcus Whitman want the Cayuse to farm the land?
   
   
7. What is a grist mill? How does it work?

1. How did the Cayuse carry or transport heavy items?
   
   
2. What type of tools and living materials did the Indians use?
   
   
3. How did the pioneers travel along the Oregon Trail?
   
   
4. What changes and improvements were made in the design of the covered wagon throughout the years of use of the Oregon Trail?
5. Did travelers along the Oregon Trail ride inside the wagons? Why or why not?
   
   
6. How did pioneers travel down the Columbia River? What were other options besides going down the river?

1. What was the name given to the Cayuse Indian medicine person?
   
   
2. What type of training did this medicine person possess?
   
   
3. In Cayuse culture, what could ultimately happen to a medicine person if one of his/her patients died?
   
   
4. How much training did Marcus Whitman have in medicine? Is the training Marcus Whitman received comparable to the training a doctor would need to practice medicine today?
   
   
5. Explain the medical procedures that Marcus Whitman used for various illnesses. Are these procedures similar or different that would be used today for the same illnesses?
   
   
6. Did these remedies differ from those of the Cayuse Indians? If so, what were the differences?
   
   
7. Which medical practices were most effective: those used by the Cayuse or the Euro-Americans? Why?

1. What types of clothing did the Cayuse Indians wear?
   
   
2. What materials were used to make Indian clothing?
   
   
3. What types of clothing did the pioneers wear?
   
   
4. What materials were used to make pioneer clothing?
   
   
5. What colors of natural dyes were available to the Indians and the pioneers? What was used to produce natural dyes?
   
   
6. Which type of clothing was more durable and warmer during the winter months--the pioneer or Indian clothing?
   
   
7. Was it possible for the pioneers and Indians to obtain pre-made clothing, or was it necessary to make all of their garments?

1. The Cayuse believed that their doctors possessed supernatural power. The missionaries knew that doctors held no supernatural powers.
   
   
2. The Cayuse had a custom that if a doctor could not cure a patient then the relatives could seek revenge by killing the doctor (or Medicine Man). The missionaries were saddened by death, but they did not avenge a death by killing the doctor.
   
   
3. The Cayuse, especially the wealthy Cayuse, practiced polygyny (a man has more than one wife). The missionaries had only one wife.
   
   
4. Cayuse women, or slaves, performed all menial tasks. Missionaries split tasks.
   
   
5. The Cayuse people were semi-nomadic. Their concept of land ownership differed from the Euro-Americans. They had loosely defined tribal boundaries and each band, or family group, had even more loosely defined boundaries. The Cayuse hunted and gathered food from the land. Fences and agriculture were foreign to them. Manual labor was considered to be for slaves and other tribes. After obtaining the horse, the Cayuse became shrewd traders and consequently, they traded more and hunted less. Missionaries glorified work. They put up fences and farmed the land.
   
   
6. The Cayuse revered the land and its natural features; everything had a meaning in their legends and religion. The missionaries used the land for cultivation and profit.

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Last modified on: February 1, 2004