Unsolved Histories by KSL Podcasts
The Search For The Cayuse Five
December 3, 202441 min · 5,892 words
Show notes
In 1850, five Indigenous men are charged in the death of missionary Marcus Whitman in the old Oregon Country. The men are convicted and hanged in Oregon City, 250 miles from the Cayuse homeland. What happens to the bodies of The Cayuse Five after the execution remains a mystery 170 years later.
Highlighted moments
They didn't speak English, they had no knowledge of the American legal system, and when they turned themselves in, they may have believed they would be assisting with the investigation, not facing a capital murder trial.
“Before Oregon Territory was created in 1848 then, it's not unreasonable to say that Cayuse Law was in fact the law of the land, and that as a failed medicine man, Marcus Whitman's death was justified.”
“The judge at the end of the trial said to the jury that they not only could, but should, make meaning of the fact, again, fact in air quotes here, that the Cayuse handed these five over.”
Transcript
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