Sager Orphans – Orphaned again
The Sager children would spend three years with the Whitmans. Elizabeth Sager described Marcus Whitman as “genial and kindly,” while Narcissa was the one to keep the children in line. But the children didn’t know that their troubles did not end when they left the Oregon Trail. Tensions between the Whitmans and local Cayuse tribes were high, though. More and more emigrants were encroaching into Cayuse lands over the Oregon Trail.
The emigrants and settlers brought diseases and Whitmans refused to pay the tribe for their land. The Cayuse blamed the missionaries for a measles outbreak in their camp. In 1847, tensions peaked and the Whitman Mission was attacked. The Sager children were among fifty-four people taken for ransom. The Whitmans and fourteen people were killed. The attack left the Sager children orphaned again.
