P
“During the bloody contest, the
pious fathers wrestled hard and
long with their God, in prayer,
that he would prosper their
arms, and deliver their enemies
into their hands.... Nor could
they, the Pilgrims, cease cry-
ing to the Lord against Philip,
until they had prayed the bullet
through his heart.... If this is
the way they pray, that is bul-
lets through people’s hearts, I
hope they will not pray for me;
I should rather be excused.”
—from William Apess’s
“Eulogy on King Philip”The Lenni Lenape (Delaware)’s Walam Olum
is published.
French biologist Constantine Samuel Rafinesque
publishes a translation of a portion of the Walam
Olum, a sacred pictographic record of Lenni Lenape
(Delaware) creation and history. Rafinesque’s book
also includes information about the Lenni Lenape
he has collected from Indian informants. A complete
translation of the Walam Olum will be published by
anthropologist Daniel Brinton in 1885.
Marcus Whitman establishes a mission
among the Cayuse.
Presbyterian missionary Marcus Whitman of New
York arrives at Fort Walla Walla on the Columbia
River, in present-day Oregon. There he establishes
an Indian mission and school at the Cayuse vil-
lage of Waiilatpu. With Whitman are his associate
Henry Spaulding and their wives, Narcissa Whit-
man and Eliza Spaulding, who are the first white
women ever to cross the Great Plains. (See also
entry for NOVEMBER 29, 1847.)
May 19Cynthia Ann Parker is taken captive by
the Comanche.
Angered by white settlers encroaching on their
lands, a party of several hundred warriors from the
Comanche, Caddo, and Kiowa tribes attack Fort
Parker, a white settlement in what is now Texas.
During the assault, five members of the Parker fam-
ily are killed, and five others are captured. Among
the captives is nine-year-old Cynthia Parker.
During the next six years, all of the captives
except for Cynthia are ransomed and returned to
their families. Although the Parkers negotiate for
Cynthia, the Comanche refuse their offers. They
claim that she wants to stay with the tribe, which
has adopted her as one of their own. Taking the Co-
manche name Preloch, Cynthia Parker will marry
Peco Nocoma, a respected Comanche warrior who
participated in the raid on Fort Parker. One of their
three children, Quanah Parker, will become the
most important Comanche leader of the reservation
era. (See also entry for DECEMBER 1860.)1837Smallpox decimates the Mandan and
Hidatsa tribes.
A smallpox epidemic sweeps through the villages
of the Mandan and Hidatsa in present-day North
Dakota. Nearly half of the Hidatsa fall victim to
the disease. The Mandan suffer even greater losses:
Only about 125 out of 1,600 survive. After this
disaster, the remaining Hidatsa and Mandan band
together to protect themselves from their Indian en-
emies, particularly the Dakota Sioux.October 23Seminole war leader Osceola is taken captive.
Leader of the rebelling Seminole (see entry for DE-
CEMBER 28, 1835), Osceola agrees to a temporary
peace in order to negotiate with General Joseph M.
Hernandez for the release of a Seminole chief captured