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Devastating Outbreak Heightens Tension in Kevin Costner's The West (S1)

07 Jul 2025
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The year is 1836, the final year of Andrew Jackson's presidency.0:00
But the Americans have their eyes on the Pacific coast.0:20
Missionaries are hearing a story that to them is so delicious.0:54
You need a husband, I need a wife.2:10
Marcus and Narcissa Whitman only managed to baptize two people.4:00
After more than a year apart, Narcissa and her husband are reunited.5:58
In 1859, Oregon becomes the 33rd state in the Union.8:06
The epic migration continues by foot, by cart, by mule and by wagon.8:49

Devastating Outbreak Heightens Tension in Kevin Costner's The West (S1)

The 1847 measles outbreak at the Whitman Mission decimated Cayuse children and ignited a tragic chain of events. Kevin Costner’s The West (S1) vividly portrays how faith, ambition, and cultural disregard collided on the Oregon frontier.

A Land of Promise in the Mid-19th Century

1836 marked the final year of Andrew Jackson’s presidency. The United States boasted 24 states and four territories, yet ambitious settlers gazed westward toward the Pacific. California remained part of Mexico, but Oregon Country seemed ripe for the taking—an area long inhabited by tribes such as the Cayuse, Nez Perce, and Chinook. Rumors of fertile soil and abundant timber reached Eastern newspapers, fueling land speculation. At that time, Britain’s Hudson’s Bay Company maintained fur-trading outposts and asserted influence, but American missionaries and settlers viewed Oregon as manifest destiny. Cheap or even free land claims drew hundreds of families each year, often overlooking that these territories were already home to Indigenous nations.

Missionaries, hearing reports of four Cayuse travelers seeking Christian teachings in St. Louis, seized the call to evangelize. To evangelical Christians, a request for the gospel was irresistible. Young missionaries organized revival meetings, fundraisers, and wagon-bound expeditions to deliver Bibles and hymns to the frontier.

The Whitman Mission: A Love Story Fueled by Faith

Marcus and Narcissa Whitman embodied this missionary zeal. A 32-year-old physician in upstate New York, Marcus grew restless with routine diagnoses and yearned for purpose. Narcissa, born Narcissa Prentiss Apprentice, led Sunday schools and revival gatherings in Auburn, New York, and dreamed of serving on the frontier. When Marcus applied to the American Missionary Board, officials balked at sending a bachelor. Their solution: marriage. The pair wed in February 1836 and embarked on an arduous journey to Oregon Country, traveling by steamboat, horseback, and hired wagons from the Hudson’s Bay Company.

At Waiilatpu, which they renamed W Lapu—“the place of the ryass” in the Cayuse tongue—they erected a mission house, a modest schoolroom, and a fenced garden. Their farm grew potatoes, wheat, and vegetables to demonstrate self-sufficiency. Together they modeled Western dress and etiquette, hoping to attract Cayuse families to the mission’s gates.

Cultural Clashes and Missionary Failures

The missionaries approached the Cayuse with an unshakable belief in cultural superiority. They insisted that Indigenous peoples abandon nomadic food gathering and seasonal camps to adopt settled farming, trim their hair, cease traditional dances, and shun intertribal trading relationships. To the Cayuse, whose ties to the land spanned millennia, these demands struck at the core of their identity. A Cayuse elder lamented, “Everything they want us to change has sustained us for over 10,000 years.” The Whitmans’ educational classes and Bible lessons, held in English, rarely bridged the linguistic divide. After several seasons, the mission tallied just two baptisms—a stark measure of failure by missionary standards. When the American Missionary Board warned of funding cuts, local frustration deepened on both sides.

The Journey of Perseverance

In October 1842, faced with dwindling support, Marcus embarked on a grueling 3,000-mile journey east alone. Traversing the Great Plains, he endured snowstorms near the Rockies and dust clouds in Kansas, subsisting on pemmican and dried vegetables. Bandits and wild animals posed constant threats, and he relied on the hospitality of frontier outposts to rest and resupply. After a six-month odyssey, Marcus arrived in Boston in tattered clothing and pleaded his case before the American Missionary Board. Impressed by his resolve, they granted one final term. Retracing his steps via St. Louis, he joined a wagon train bound for Oregon, unexpectedly becoming its de facto headman and proving that wheeled vehicles could conquer the mountain passes.

Tides of Change: The Great Migration and Its Consequences

Economic turmoil in the East—precipitated by the Panic of 1837—left many unemployed and landless. The Oregon Trail offered a new beginning. In 1839, a few hundred Americans ventured west. By 1843, more than a thousand set off in what became known as the Great Migration. Wagon companies swelled—from an early group of 250 to nearly 4,000 the following spring. The Whitmans’ mission became a crucial resupply point, offering medical care and shelter. They also took in orphaned children whose parents had died of cholera or accidents en route. As the numbers grew, so did tensions over grazing rights, water access, and diseases inadvertently carried by newcomers.

Outbreak and Its Aftermath

In late 1847, a devastating measles outbreak swept through Waiilatpu, introduced by newly arrived settlers and lacking effective quarantine measures. Dozens of Cayuse children succumbed to the virus, and their families, unaware of germ theory, suspected foul play by the missionaries [verify]. Desperate to save both Indigenous and settler lives, the Whitmans applied traditional treatments alongside rudimentary medical care. Yet as the death toll rose, so did accusations, fracturing trust. This tragic episode fueled existing grievances and set the stage for a violent confrontation—the Whitman Massacre of November 1847.

The Bitter Costs of Manifest Destiny

By the mid-1840s, settler communities outnumbered the Cayuse and other tribes in the Willamette Valley. Official negotiations in 1855 forced the Cayuse to cede over 6.4 million acres, retaining just 245,000 acres on a shared reservation with the Umatilla and other Plateau tribes [verify]. Traditional hunting and fishing grounds were replaced by wheat fields and cattle ranches. In 1859, Oregon was admitted as the 33rd state, its economic foundation transformed from fur trading to agriculture. Between 1840 and 1860, more than 400,000 migrants traversed the Oregon Trail, carving a visible rutted path across prairies and mountains that can still be traced from space.

A New Legacy

The influx of settlers irrevocably altered Indigenous lifeways. Where the Cayuse once roamed and gathered in what is now Oregon, towns and farms now dominate the landscape. Yet descendants maintain living links to ceremonial practices and oral histories. As one elder reflects,

“Our elders always tell us there's good and bad in everything that happens. You have to look at both.”

  • Reflect on how the echoes of cultural conflict and disease shaping our past inform today's debates on land rights and public health.