CAYUSE

The name of the Cayuse, pronounced kie-YOOS, has come to mean “pony” in the English language. The original meaning of their name is unknown. But since the Cayuse were such proficient horsebreeders and horsedealers, their tribal name has taken on the general meaning of a small, domesticated Indian horse. Their native name is Waiilatpu.

The Cayuse occupied ancestral territory along tributaries of the Columbia River, such as the Grande Ronde, Umatilla, and Wallawalla Rivers, in what today is northeast Oregon and southeast Washington. They are classified as part of the Plateau Culture Area (see PLATEAU INDIANS). The Cayuse dialect of Penutian, called Waiilatpuan, was spoken only by one other people, the neighboring Molalla.

A Cayuse man with pony and dog

The Cayuse lived in oblong lodges as well as in coneshaped tents, each type of structure covered with woven-reed mats or buffalo hides. The family made up the most important social unit, with several families organized into bands with chiefs. Salmon, deer, small game, roots, and berries were the main food sources.

The Cayuse were famous as traders, exchanging buffalo robes and reed mats with the coastal Indians for shells and other items. Horses, brought to North America by the Spanish, reached them in the early 1700s and became their most important product for trade with other Indians. In later years, once the fur trade with non-Indians was under way, the Cayuse traded buffalo robes and other animal pelts for guns, tools, and blankets.

The Cayuse were involved in the first war between Indians and non-Indians in the Columbia Plateau region, the Cayuse War of 1847—50. Earlier, in 1836, about 30 years after the Lewis and Clark Expedition had opened this part of North America to non-Indian settlement, Marcus Whitman founded a Presbyterian mission known as Waiilatpu among the Cayuse. His wife, Narcissa Whitman, came with him from the East. She and Eliza Spalding, the wife of Henry Spalding, another missionary to the region, were the first non-Indian women to cross North America.

Even though they worked among the Cayuse for 10 years, the Whitmans never developed a strong rapport with their hosts. They were intolerant of Indian culture and beliefs and demanded conversion to Presbyterian ways. Moreover, when increasing numbers of emigrants arrived in Oregon Country, the Whitmans turned their attention to them and became rich from trade and land sales, keeping the money for themselves and not sharing it with the Indians who worked alongside them.

The particular incident that sparked the Cayuse War was an outbreak of measles. Cayuse children enrolled at the mission school came down with the disease and it spread to adults. Cayuse leaders blamed the missionaries. In 1847, two Cayuse, Chief Tilokaikt and Tomahas, went to the mission for medicine. Before leaving, however, they attacked Marcus Whitman and killed him with tomahawk blows. Soon afterward, other Cayuse raided the mission, killing 11 other whites, including Narcissa Whitman.

Oregon Country organized a volunteer army under clergyman Cornelius Gilliam. When the militiamen attacked an encampment of innocent Cayuse, killing as many as 30, other Indians, including warriors from the PALOUSE and WALLA WALLA, joined the Cayuse cause. Gilliam’s continuing campaign threatened to unite even more Plateau tribes in a general uprising. When Gilliam was killed by his own gun in an accident, his troops abandoned the field.

Tilokaikt and Tomahas hid out for two more years. Growing tired of the fugitive life and hoping for mercy from white courts, they surrendered. But white jurors convicted them of murder and the judge sentenced them to hang. Before their execution, the two rejected Presbyterian rites and asked for Catholic ones instead.

The Cayuse War hastened the pace of change in Oregon Country. The federal government established new military posts in the region and organized a territorial government. Many tribes of the Columbia Plateau now distrusted whites, and other wars eventually occurred. The Cayuse supported the YAKAMA and BANNOCK in the Yakama War of 1855—59 and the Bannock War of 1878. Some Cayuse also settled among the NEZ PERCE and fought alongside them in their uprising of 1877.

Most Cayuse were settled with the UMATILLA and the Walla Walla on a reservation in northeastern Oregon and southeastern Washington, established in 1853. Their descendants live there today, with a tribal headquarters for Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Pendleton, Oregon. The economy of the Confederated Tribes consists of agriculture, livestock, timber, hunting, fishing, and commercial development, including the Wildhorse Casino and Resort. The Tamastslikt Cultural Institute, which opened in 1998, is part of the resort.