Cayuse History

Cayuse History

Cayuse, A Waiilatpuan tribe formerly occupying the territory about the
heads of Walla Walla, Umatilla, and Grande Ronde Rivers and from the
Blue mountains to Deschutes River in Washington and Oregon. The tribe
has always been closely associated with the neighboring Nez Percé and
Walla Walla, and was regarded by the early explorers and writers as
belonging to the same stock. So far as the available evidence goes,
however, they must be considered linguistically independent. The Cayuse
have always been noted for their bravery, and owing largely to their
constant struggles with the Snake and other tribes, have been
numerically weak. According to Gibbs there were few pure-blood Cayuse
left in 1851, intermarriage, particularly with the Nez Percé, having
been so prevalent that even the language was falling into disuse. In
1855 the Cayuse joined in the treaty by which the Umatilla Reservation
was formed, and since that time have resided within its limits. Their
number is officially reported as 404 in 1904; but this figure is
misleading, as careful inquiry in 1902 failed to discover a single one
of pure blood on the reservation and the language is practically
extinct. The tribe acquired wide notoriety in the early days of the
white settlement of the territory. In 1838 a mission was established
among the Cayuse by Marcus Whitman at the site of the present town of
Whitman, Walla Walla County, Wash. in 1847 smallpox carried off a large
part of the tribe. The Cayuse, believing the missionaries to be the
cause, attacked them, murdered Whitman and a number of others. and
destroyed the mission. Owing to the confusion in the early accounts it
is difficult to differentiate the Cayuse from the Nez Percé and Walla
Walla, but there is no reason to suppose that in habits and customs
they differed markedly from those tribes.

Handbook of American Indians (1906) ~ Frederick W. Hodge