Cassandra Tate: Unsettled Ground
Channel: Ed Mays
Date: 2021-05-06

The seizure of the Whitman Mission in 1847 by members of the Cayuse tribe along with the murder of Marcus Whitman, his wife Narcissa, and eleven others was a pivotal moment in Pacific Northwest history.  It provoked such fear and outrage that it caused an 8 year war, the posting of federal troops to the area, the recognition of the Northwest as U.S. territory and eventually led to stripping the natives of much of their land and confining them to reservations.

The historical narrative of the Whitmans has changed with the times in accordance with the “politics of memory”.  Originally depicted as brave martyred evangelicals who had come to save the souls of the natives from eternal damnation, and next as courageous pioneers who helped fulfill the dream of “manifest destiny”.  More recently they are seen as cultural imperialist settler colonialists who tried to impose their religion and way of life on indigenous people all the while bringing plague, stealing their land and destroying their livelihoods. 

Seattle-based historian and author Cassandra Tate has devoted over a decade of research into her new book, "Unsettled Ground: The Whitman Massacre and Its Shifting Legacy in the American West".  Along with John C. Hughes chief historian for the Secretary of State’s oral history program, they take a deep dive into the archival record to shed new light on what happened in the Whitman incident that changed history, bringing to life early nineteenth-century times in what is now southeastern Washington State.

Cassandra Tate is a Seattle-based historian and author.  A former journalist, she earned a PhD in American history at the University of Washington in 1995. She is the author previously of Cigarette Wars: The Triumph of "The Little White Slaver." Her work has been published in Smithsonian, Columbia Journalism Review, and other national magazines, and she has contributed more than 200 articles to HistoryLink.org, the online encyclopedia of Washington State history. She is a former Nieman Fellow at Harvard University.
Thanks to Elliott Bay Books https://www.elliottbaybook.com/book/9781632172501
Recorded 4/16/21

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