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Marcus Whitman was a missionary in the Oregon Territory who was killed by Cayuse Indians on November 29, 1847. He and his wife, Narcissa, had arrived in the Cayuse / Nez Perce lands in 1836, near what is now Walla Walla, Washington. There they set up a mission, which was named Waiilatpu, and attempted to convert the Cayuse peoples to protestant Christianity. When a measles epidemic hit in late 1847, many of the whites and Cayuse in the area became sick. A large number of Cayuse, including most of their children who contracted the disease, died; most of the whites recovered. The Cayuse believed that the Whitmans were responsible for the deaths. This led to several Cayuse, including the chief Tiloukaikt, killing the Whitmans along with 12 other whites at the mission. Later called the "Whitman Massacre," this event precipitated the Cayuse War.

The Whitman Mission at Waiilatpu had served as a kind of hub for other white settlers, who were arriving in increasing numbers in the 1840s. One of the Whitmans' friends was Alanson Hinman, who had immigrated to the Oregon Territory in 1844. Hinman taught school at the mission before moving on the Willamette Valley. He eventually settled in Forest Grove, Oregon, where he became a founder and trustee of Pacific University.