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New Dangers Audio Described
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IMAGE and TEXT: New Dangers DESCRIBING: Graphite illustration of Cayuse people with Marcus Whitman.
SYNOPSIS: Two Cayuse men lie on woven mats. From the left, the first man, shown from the waist up, lies with his back lifted and arched. The second man is to his right and lying prone. A white man kneels with an arm outstretched over the man on the right and administers medicine to the man’s chest.
Nine Cayuse Indians, some sitting, some kneeling, and some standing gather around with furrowed brows, leaning in, arms crossed, with serious, worried expressions. Most have long dark hair and braids, some are wrapped in blankets and shawls.
CAPTION: American artist Norman Adams depicted weyíıletpuu watching Whitman treating a man.
CREDIT: NPS / Norman Adams
RELATED TEXT:
“We had medicines for diseases from here. Medicines and poultices. But they brought new diseases like smallpox and measles, that my people had no defense against.”—paqaˀlapáykt (Norman Dumont), 2017
By 1840, native communities along the lower Columbia River had been decimated by malaria. Formerly vibrant communities could no longer defend themselves or their homes. The weyíıletpuu knew this and feared the same result.
When measles struck the mission community in 1847, most immigrants recovered, thanks to natural immunity. But the weyíıletpuu did not have immunity, and they had already been weakened by other diseases. Thirty of the 50 pášx̣apuu band died within six weeks. Survivors questioned whether Whitman had poisoned them, intentionally introduced the disease, or made mistakes.
Description
The New Dangers section of the Whitman Mission NHS audio described
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