Unsettled Ground: The Whitman Massacre and Its Shifting Legacy in the American West

"By turns moving, evenhanded and lyrical in its evocation of time and place."—Seattle Times

In this rigorously researched and incisively written account, historian and journalist Cassandra Tate challenges generations of received wisdom about the 1847 killing of Marcus and Narcissa Whitman and eleven others at their Presbyterian mission on Cayuse land near present-day Walla Walla.

Far from a simple story of martyrdom and savagery, the Whitman incident emerges here as a cultural collision steeped in misunderstanding, religious idealism, and colonial arrogance. Tate deftly navigates the evolving narratives that have surrounded the event—from nineteenth-century sanctification to twentieth-century critique—revealing how shifting social values have shaped public memory. With nuance and clarity, she illuminates voices long suppressed, particularly those of the Cayuse, whose perspectives refract the complexities of resistance, sovereignty, and survival.

Tate’s portrait of the Whitmans is neither hagiography nor vilification. Instead, it captures them as earnest but flawed agents of Manifest Destiny, shaped as much by their cultural assumptions as by their religious convictions. Through fresh archival research and a deep sensitivity to context, Unsettled Ground unpacks the politics of commemoration and historical narrative, offering a compelling, unvarnished retelling that is as relevant as it is revelatory. This is essential reading for anyone interested in the contested ground of Western history.