Page:Letter from the Secretary of the Interior, re Whitman Massacre, 1871.pdf/42

Rh Mrs. McKinney, (emigrants,) P. B. Whitman, and Doctor Saffrons. As they had received no intimation from the Frenchman, who was direct from Walla-Walla, and had received no letters from that post, which they certainly would, had the doctor and the emigrants been killed, as represented by the Indians, they could not believe for a moment the report of the Indians. But still the Indians about the station became more and more excited from day to day, and finally took their women and effects to the mountains; and the day before Mr. Hinman's return, several painted, naked Cayuse showed themselves in the vicinity of the station.

It is a question of vital importance to American Protestants, not of that day only, but of the present day, why that Frenchman was ordered not to let Americans at the Dalles know their danger; why he was threatened with that most fearful of all punishments, more than fines or imprisonment, to deter him from telling them. Why did not Mr. McBean or the priests write by that messenger to the Dalles, when they knew a party of the murderers was soon to start to kill them ? Why was the Frenchman told to obtain Mr. Hinman to go on with him, if possible, thus leaving his family more exposed?

Questions to Mr. Hinman: Did you ever hear Dr. Whitman express fears concerning influence which Catholics were exerting among the Indians?

Hinman's answer: I have heard him say several times that he had no fears but that the mission would prosper only from the Catholic influence.

Q. Do you know anything of the Catholic ladder?—A. I saw one in the hands of the Indians at the Dalles, and heard them speak of others. The object of this painting was to represent Protestants leading Indians to hell, and Catholics leading Indians to heaven.

Q. Did you ever hear the Indians say they had been told by Catholics and Frenchmen that American missionaries were causing them to die?—A. Yes, very often.

Q: Who would you understand by the term “great chief,” as used by the Indians?—A. The principal white man among them.

Q. Who was the principal white man at Umatilla at the time of Whitman's massacre?—A. Bishop Blanchette.

Q. How did Dr. Whitman regard the Cayuse as to their readiness to receive instructions?–A. The last time I saw him, which was a few weeks before the butchery, he was greatly encouraged.

Q. Did the Frenchmen tell you that he saw the dead bodies of Dr. and Mrs. Whitman?—A. He said he was out on Tuesday looking after the horses of the post; saw a great multitude of the Indians about the doctor's house; rode there; saw the bodies of Dr. and Mrs. Whitman and others lying about. The Indians told him to alight and not be afraid. He saw the doctor and John lying in the house; Mrs. Whitman, Mr. Rodgers and Francis lying in the mud near the kitchen door; others at a little distance. Crows were upon them; they were badly cut to pieces.

ALANSON HINMAN.

Subscribed and sworn to before me this 9th day of April, 1849.

JOST J. HEMBREE,

Justice of the Peace in and for the county of Yamhill, O. T.

To the honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the Congress of the United States:

The memorial of the undersigned, Henry H. Spalding, of the State of Oregon, late missionary of the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions to the Indians, in the former Territory of Oregon, respectfully represents:

That Marcus Whitman, M.D., a citizen of the United States, and a native of the State of New York, did, in 1836, by official permit from the War Department of the United States, proceed to the Pacific shores, then almost wholly unknown to our people and totally unappreciated, and ostensibly in the joint occupancy of the United States and Great Britain, but really under the exclusive control of the Hudson's Bay Company, a British monopoly, governed by a board of directors in London, with 55 sworn officers in the Territory, and 515 articled men, and over 800 half-breeds and all the Indian tribes under their control, with a line of well-established and strongly fortified posts extending from the Pacific to the Atlantic shores, and having complete control of the Pacific coast for over 2,000 miles, deriving a yearly revenue of over $40,000, and who had succeeded by their power and the aid of the savages in forcing the last American trader from the country.

And that said Dr. Whitman, by order of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, established an American mission in the valley of the Walla-Walla, in said Territory of Oregon, and by his travels as missionary made himself acquainted