Murder at the Mission: A Frontier Killing, Its Legacy of Lies, and the Taking of the American West

The story of the Whitman family killings during the mid-1800s in the Walla Walla area is finally being reconsidered and studied critically. This book is more than just a rehash of the events leading to the death of Marcus Whitman, his wife, and nine other people, who were all Protestant missionaries in Oregon Country. In fact, this book looks at how the story was twisted, lies fabricated, and how it became a much larger story than it originally was, morphing into something school children learned as the truth for decades until people began digging.

Much reconsideration of the events leading to the deaths of the eleven people is needed, including making sure that the story follows the documents at hand during the events and not just the word of one person who constantly changed the story to suit himself so he could find work in an ever-changing world. This is a step toward looking at things in the past in a whole new light, including how the native tribes in the area felt about Whitman and the role that failed medicine men played.