The major players: Marcus Whitman Narcissa Whitman
Chiefs Tiloukaikt and Tomahas, who led the rebellion against Whitman
Chief Five Crows, who fell in love with a white woman
Artist's rendition of the Whitman Massacre
MIDI files. Here is the music, scene by scene, from the piano/vocal score. The lyric line is carried by reeds or other non-piano sounds on piano score, often by trumpets on orchestration file.
Into their homeland come missionaries, led by Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, who establish a mission as a base in their efforts to convert the Cayuse to Christianity.
The missionaries begin by trying to teach the Cayuse how to farm but without much luck. One Cayuse Chief, Five Crows, is especially attracted to the young white woman, Lorinda Bewley.
When Cayuse children become sick, a Medicine Man who cannot cure them is banished, as is the tribal custom (banishment or worse). Marcus, also a medical doctor, comes forward and helps the children get well.
Chief Timothy is very curious about Christianity, especially since Marcus gives credit to Jesus Christ for his ability to make the Cayuse children well again.
Chief Timothy becomes the first Cayuse to convert to Christianity (scene 9). But Joe Lewis warns the Cayuse that Marcus is a fraud, that the true "white religion" is Catholic, as espoused by priests who have arrived in the area for the first time. Marcus fears that their arrival will make the missionary task even harder (scene 10).
Cayuse children are sick again. This time, Marcus cannot help them. White children recover from this measles epidemic but Cayuse children are dying. Some chiefs want to hold Marcus responsible as a medicine man giving bad medicine.
All chiefs but one believe it is time to confront Marcus. Five Crows tries to talk them out of it. He is smitten by Lorinda Bewley and wants to take her as his wife.
The chief woos Lorinda, treating her with respect, but fails to win her heart. He finally lets her return to her people. In the meantime, the chiefs are captured and convicted of murdering the missionaries.
The Cayuse chiefs defend their innocence by arguing that it was the Cayuse way to make a medicine man pay the consequences of bad medicine. They are hung anyway. The Cayuse wars begin.
The Cayuse, banished to reservations, seeing their resources depleted as more and more white people settle in the west, maintain their innocence to the end.
Renamed Zeena: Twenty-Seven Sonnets of Lust and Obsession, grouped with photographs by Andy Whipple, being marketed as art book. Designed by Rob Anderson.