From The Daily Dialogue
From The Daily Dialogue
Broadcast of 8/7/98
Subject: [DailyDialogue #217] Differentiation
"The noble Cayuse once numbered over 8,000 people inhabiting 6.4 million acres in southeast Washington and northeast Oregon. Their lives and traditions revolved around the gathering of food and a seasonal cycle of migration. From late spring until fall the food was fish: salmon, trout, lamprey eels, steelhead trout, and sturgeon. Along the Columbia River at sites such as Celilo Falls, many tribes from as far away as the Pacific Ocean and the Great Plains used a variety of hooks, nets, spears and traps to gather large quantities of fish.
From the late fall until spring, family groups went to the woodlands and upper slopes of the Blue Mountains so the women could gather roots and berries and the men could hunt deer and elk."
-- The Oregon Trail Pageant
Last night with two other couples, we watched an outdoor pageant at the End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center in Oregon City. The pageant told the story of the Whitman massacre as viewed from the perspectives of both emigrants and Indians.
Marcus and Narcissa Whitman were among the protestant missionaries who came to the Oregon Territory to attempt to civilize and Christianize the tribal peoples. This mission-impossible involved convincing tribal peoples to give up both their world-view and their traditional way of life in favor of parceling and farming the land. Whitman's zeal to reform the Indians so that they might live peacefully with the white emigrants was probably unparalleled.
In late 1847, the Whitmans and several nearby settlers were murdered by a small group of Cayuse. The Cayuse had come to see the Whitmans as responsible for the decimation of tribal peoples by white diseases, and for the loss of their traditional lands to the settlers.
A militia was sent from Oregon City to bring the Cayuse to justice. For a time the Cayuse fled to the hills to avoid their pursuers. To halt the harrassment and killing of Cayuse people, five male Cayuse leaders surrendered and were brought to trial in Oregon City. All five were found guilty and were hanged.
Historians agree that the trial was unjust and that at least one of the five Cayuse had no involvement in the massacre. Plans have been laid to create a memorial to the five Cayuse and a review of the trial is scheduled to come before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. In addition, a ceremony of "concilation and healing" is being designed.
Experiment: The misguided attempts to change the Indian culture in a single generation could be seen as massive cutural fusion, a failure to differentiate and respect the other's right to be different. Dialogue about small ways in which you fail to differentiate and respect the differentness of your partner.
Affirmation: I respect your right to be different.
The Daily Dialogue is published each day of 1998 by e-mail. Copyright 1998, Eddy Brame and Marty Crouch, All rights reserved.
