Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-11-21
HOW We COT OREGON
The Story as Told by an Old
Indian Woman.
ITS TRAGIC ENDING
MARCUS WHITMAN AND HIS
WORK IN THE FAR NORTHWEST.
Causes That Led Up to the Murder of
the Missionary and His
Wife.
ITS TRAGIC ENDING

Copyright, 1908, by Charles N Crewdson)
Written for The Evening Star by Charles n.
Crewdson.
I'VE got oregon through Marcus Whit
man." said Major Moorhouse to me as we
drove upon the Umatilla reservation one
Sunday morning. Down the road we passed
an old Indian woman on whom the hand of
Time had struck a whitening blow. She
bent over she rode her pony.
"Taats- me- (good morning., said the
old woman as she turned her furrowed face
toward us.
'Taats- mime" we answered back.
THAT'S old Ip-na- thal-a-talc," said the
major "She has in that Indian basket
you see there on her arm hymn book and
Bible that Mrs. Whitman gave her away
back in the thrties when DR.. Whitman first
came to this country missionary. She's
just come from church. She always car
ries with her wherever she goes The books
from heaven
She lives down the road here just mile
or So"
Suppose we go to see her." said I. VIII
she talk to us?"
"Oh. yes. She is very friendly"
Amid the cottonwoods which deck the
valley of the Umatilla river we found the
little house in which dwelt Ip-na-thal-a-
Slc. She lived with her daughter Mary,
pho had taken white mans NAME" and
her son, Cougar Shirt This was one of
the few Indian families of the reservation
that had not turned the house the govern
ment built for it into a stable and kept on
living in a tepee The major and / en-
tered. The old lady soon followed us in
She spoke little English This she had
learned from Mrs. Whitman She told me
in her pleasing jargon the story Of the
missionary and his wife-of their first
coming among the Indian tribes-of their
life Mt the mission and finally of their
massacre.
When Whitman Came.
"Injun have no God when Brother Whit
man come, long time ago. l young wo-
man that time" began Ip-na-thal-a-talc
"Injun believe earth his god. Land grow
grass; pony eat grass; COW eat grass; deer
eat grass; Injun eat deer; Injun eat root;
Injun believe earth his mother; Injun be-
lieve earth let no bad come to him; Injun
believe 1t wrong to put him hoe in earth
all same put him knife IN mothers breast"
Brother Whitman come. He bring Book
OF Heaven He make him heap talk. Sis
ter Whitman come-pretty woman. long
hair-all same leaves when frost come.
She bring sing book. She make him heap
sing"
Here old a-thal-a-talc took out of her
woven grass satchel her rusty Bible and
hymn book and sang for us:
There is happy land far. far away
Whitman put him hoe in ground, put
MIN Prov III STOuHu f1edp grow. WHIT
man make him mill. make him flour, make
him bread. Sister Whitman teach him In
jun read. teach him Injun pray to Great
Father. Some Injun say good; some Injun
say bad. Some Injun work him plow;
some Injun say he no work all same
squaw
''Bimeby little white papoose come
petelis G.e., girl). She talk Injun talk; she
sing Injun sing. All Injun love little
white papoose. One day she fall in water.
She die. Injun very sorry. Some Injun
say: Bad medicine
I'VE put little white papoose in ground.
We sing that time"
Here Ip-na-thal-a-talc turned in her fin
gered hymn book to the page she knew so
we'll and began to sing:
Rock of ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in thee"
We all Joined the old woman, long since
past her three score and ten. as she led the
song in a plaintive treble. A tear glistened