Cayuse Chief Tiloukaikt

Cayuse Chief Tiloukaikt led several warriors in killing 13 people at Oregon’s Whitman mission on November 29, 1847.  The Indians blamed the whites for a measles outbreak that killed dozens.

A war ensued.  But finally, more than two years later, five of the Indians surrendered in an effort to end the conflict.  They were tried and hanged on June 3, 1850.  Tiloukaikt was asked why he gave up, facing certain death: “Did not your missionaries teach us that Christ died to save his people?  So we die to save our people.”