Women andmissions in the west : a comparative study of narcissa Prentiss Whitman and Eliza Hart Spalding.

Abstract

In 1836 the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions sent Marcus and Narcissa Whitman and Henry and Eliza Spalding to the Pacific Northwest to convert the Cayuse and Nez Perce Indians who lived there. As the first white women to travel to this "foreign" territory, Narcissa Whitman and Eliza Spalding were pioneers, opening the way for thousands of other women to travel west on the Oregon Trail. Whitman and Spalding were also true believers: they were convinced of the superiority of their own culture and certain that all Christians should think, act, and look like they did. They wanted the Native Americans they worked with to adopt Christianity and Euro-American agricultural practices, to wear western style clothing, and to respect western views about property, marriage, and child rearing. Notwithstanding their shared cultural assumptions, the two women had markedly different personalities. In time, their personal styles helped to create profound differences between the missions at Waiilatpu and Lapwai and very different outcomes when the two missions found themselves at the center of a clash between white culture and tribal culture in 1847. An attack by the Cayuse left Narcissa and ten other residents ofthe Waiilatpu mission dead but the Nez Perce did not attack Lapwai, which remained open for many years. In the 19th century, middle class women were expected to have a domesticating influence on the men in their lives, and to provide a kind ofredemption for their husbands who worked in the sinful world. In the same way, the ABCFM hoped that Narcissa and Eliza, by modeling Christian family life and the appropriate role of women, would domesticate the West and the Indians who lived there. As it turned out, rather than convert the Native Americans, the Oregon Missionaries found themselves providing encouragement and supplies for the thousands of white Americans immigrating to the area. In this way, Narcissa Whitman and Eliza Spalding were more influential in furthering the expansion of the United States than spreading the Gospel. 1