The Cayuse War was an armed conflict that took place in the Northwestern United States from 1847 to 1855 between the Cayuse people of the region and the United States Government and local American settlers. Caused in part by the influx of disease and settlers to the region, the immediate start of the conflict occurred in 1847 when the Whitman Massacre took place at the Whitman Mission near present-day Walla Walla, Washington when fourteen people were killed in and around the mission. Over the next few years the Provisional Government of Oregon and later the United States Army battled the Native Americans east of the Cascades. This was the first of several wars between the Native Americans and American settlers in that region that would lead to the negotiations between the United States and Native Americans of the Columbia Plateau, creating a number of Indian reservations.
The Cayuse War was an armed confrontation between the native American community known as Cayuse and the U.S government and the local American settlers in the region. The war was caused by an increase in the number of settlers entering the region and an increase in diseases in Oregon. The local Indian people believed that the settlers were responsible for the introduction of diseases in the area. The Whitman Massacre was the catalyst of the war that lasted for seven years.
Cayuse tribesmen attacked the Whitman Mission on November 29, 1847. Fourteen settlers were killed, including both of the Whitmans. Most of the buildings at Waiilatpu were destroyed
Upton Sinclair's The Jungle: Muckraking the Meat-Packing Industry. Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle to expose the appalling working conditions in the meat-packing industry. His description of diseased, rotten, and contaminated meat shocked the public and led to new federal food safety laws.
