Image: Tom Skeen / Walla Walla Union-Bulletin via AP
A statue of Marcus Whitman stands on city property just outside the Whitman College campus in Walla Walla, Washington.
For generations Marcus Whitman has been widely viewed as an iconic figure from early Pacific Northwest history, a venerated Protestant missionary who was among 13 people killed by the Cayuse tribe near modern-day Walla Walla, Washington, in 1847.
But this past year has seen a continued reappraisal of Whitman, whose actions have increasingly been viewed as imperialistic and destructive.
The Washington Legislature voted to strip his likeness from the US Capitol. Students at Whitman College in Walla Walla demonstrated recently to demand another Whitman statue be removed from campus. A new book says a well-known story about Whitman’s efforts to save the Northwest from British rule was fabricated.