Becoming Walla Walla: The Transformation of Cayuse Country, 1805-1879

The first Euro-Americans to trek through the verdant Walla Walla Valley were uniformly impressed with its prospects for colonization. The Cayuse remained the valley’s primary inhabitants until diverse populations with equally diverse objectives—manipulative traders, frictional missionaries, hostile colonists, an over-ambitious governor, a distracted Bureau of Indian Affairs, vigilante armies, and their rival, the US Army—arrived and rapidly transformed the region. Established at a fortunate...