Converting the West: A Biography of Narcissa Whitman

Jeffrey, Julie Roy

ISBN 10: 0806123591 / ISBN 13: 9780806123592

Published by University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK, 1991

About this Item

8vo, 238 pp. Fine copy in nearly fine dust jacket.

Seller Inventory # 100812

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Converting the West: A Biography of Narcissa Whitman
• Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK
• Publication Date: 1991
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0806123591
• ISBN 13: 9780806123592
• Binding: hardcover
• Edition: 1st.
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Seller catalogs:
  • Western Americana

About this title

Synopsis

Narcissa Whitman and her husband, Marcus, were pioneering missionaries to the Cayuse Indians in Oregon Territory. In this biography, the author traces her motivations and relationships, as well as the circumstances that led to her death at the hands of members of the Cayuse tribe. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

Reviews

Since her brutal killing in an 1847 massacre of whites by Cayuse Indians, Narcissa Whitman has donned the mantle of heroine and martyr. Sent west from New York in 1836 by an evangelical group, newlyweds Narcissa and Marcus Whitman founded the Waiilatpu mission near present-day Walla Walla, Wash., and set about converting the Cayuse to Christianity, with scant success. In this unsympathetic treatment, Jeffrey ( Frontier Woman ) faults Narcissa's esteemed role in history and, on flimsy evidence, blames in part her haughtiness and ineptitude for the massacre. The Narcissa met in this arguable, revisionist portrait is a dependent mama's girl who romanticized her calling and, flawed by narrow thinking, proved ill-suited for missionary work. Illustrated.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.