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Eliza’s trip back to Waiilatpu with Timothy is fiction, but something in her later life changed Eliza from what local interviews of people who had known her described as “an unhappy woman” to one willing and able to leave Brownsville for good and build her own home at the age of seventy. Her memoir reflects a woman of great strength who brought four children into the world whose descendants remember the stories of her fondly. Her presentation at the Pioneer Reunion at Crawfordsville in 1888 also presents her as a stalwart and loving woman. What I read there was a devotion to family unity and to preserving the memory of her mother’s work, especially among The People, who in many ways helped raise Eliza and gifted her with their own spiritual strength warmed by their conversion to Christianity. To this day there are descendants of those early converts who continue to practice the faith, just as there are descendants who returned to their native spiritual practices.

I have chosen to have Henry and Eliza Spalding use the name Nez Perce as well as Nimíipuu when they refer to The People they lived among. Eliza the daughter uses Nez Perce and The People. When the language of the Nez Perce is being spoken of, Sahaptin is the linguist group of the natives of that region. Chinookan was also used among whites and natives at that time.

The Spalding spelling was chosen as most historical, though the street in Brownsville named for Henry is spelled Spaulding and that spelling occurs on land documents from the time period. Either appears to be correct. Eliza the mother did keep a diary and many of her letters are also published. More material is also available at the Bancroft Library and the Presbyterian Historical Society’s archives in Philadelphia. The diary
entries in this novel are my creation, using the tone of Eliza the mother, I hope, but giving words to things she never spoke of: her surviving a terrible tragedy when the Whitmans did not; her frustration with the Mission Board’s refusal to let them return to Lapwai. And I gave her an expression of some frustration with her husband, though she never criticizes him in her own diary. Still, the documented report by one of Henry’s professors of his student’s lack of common sense and quick temper rings true, as does that professor’s high regard for Eliza as a scholar, linguist, and thinker. One gets the impression that if she had been a man, she would have been given the post that she was allowed to serve only as a helpmate for in 1836.

The history of Brownsville, the Warrens’ decision to leave in 1859 and move to the Touchet country near where the tragedy took place, their return again to Brownsville, Henry’s response to all his daughters’ marriages, the sibling rivalry, Millie’s injury, Mr. Warren’s driving cattle across the Cascades where he did, and later Montana, his ups and downs and even a period when he was known to be drinking heavily (based on documents and interviews of Brownsville residents done in the 1930s), Henry’s temper, Rachel’s arrival and housekeeping foibles are all based on facts. Eliza Hart Spalding’s wedding ring is in a collection at the Oregon Historical Society in Portland, Oregon. These facts and ephemera and love of history were provided in no small part by Linda McCormick’s own passion for the story of these families. I am forever indebted to her for her willingness to share her research, to speculate with me about the weaving of those facts into fiction, and for her review of the manuscript to correct and help me refine what I hope is a story that in many ways speaks to the power of memory and the suffering that old memories can bring into our present time.

In addition to Linda McCormick, I spoke with Carol Har
rison of Monterey, California, a granddaughter of James, Eliza Spalding Warren’s son. She is engaged in writing her own book about her family in which she noted she has explored the political side of the Whitman and Spalding struggles. We have a shared admiration for the lives of the Elizas but differ in how their lives may have played out. I am grateful for her time and sharing with me.

A definitive work by Clifford Merrill Drury called
Henry Harmon Spalding
and his three-volume work
First White Women over the Rockies
and
Where Wagons Could
Go
offer details of the lives of the first missionaries. His papers are part of the archival collection at Spokane, Washington. I relied on Joel Palmer’s work
Journals of
Travels
over the Oregon Trail in 1845
for both the Nez Perce/Sahaptin and Chinook words I used as well as his commentary about meeting the Spaldings and the Whitmans during that year.

Eliza Spalding Warren’s
Memories of the
West
was an invaluable aid that not only included her memories but also several photographs and excerpts from her mother’s overland journey of 1836. Laurie Winn Carlson’s work
On Sidesaddles to Heaven
:
The Women of the Rocky Mountain
Mission
, read while researching an earlier trilogy, was reread, and once again I am grateful for her insights about all of the early Northwest missionaries. I also found James E. Bashford’s work
The Oregon Missions
written in 1918 to offer interesting insights as the bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
The Mantle of Elias:
The Story of Fathers
Blanchet and Demers in Early Oregon
by M. Leona Nichols offered a different take on the trial of those charged for the Whitmans’ deaths and hostage-taking.
Biography of Place
by Martin Winch (Deschutes Historical Society) confirmed the route over the Cascades along the Santiam River that Eliza alluded to in her memoir. Mr. Winch provided the
name Mr. Wiley, attributed to having made this first crossing in 1858 or 1859, which fit perfectly for Andrew Warren to have been one of the first to move cattle through that pass, a fact Eliza proudly mentions in her memoir. The journey up the east side of the Cascades would have taken them through a meadow (where my parents are buried in the Camp Polk cemetery) and north through the Warm Springs Indian Reservation toward The Dalles. The tragic winter of 1861–62 is documented in Oregon history and Eliza’s memoir, as is her journey east to Touchet following her husband but going with another couple and her four-month-old and two-and-a-half-year-old children by an oxen-pulled wagon.

Some of my readers may find the faith discussions in this book to be greater than usual. This is due in no small part to the evidence of such faith moving in the lives of these people long before they became characters in my story. Eliza the mother’s conversion to Christianity as a young woman, her pull to go west with her missionary husband, her willingness to travel sidesaddle across the continent along with Narcissa Whitman (who had rejected Henry Spalding’s offer of marriage but a short time before—now there’s a story!), and her devotion to The People and their devotion to her are all a part of this woman’s profound and humble faith. It shaped her life in much the way that Pulitzer Prize–winner Wallace Stegner once wrote in an essay about the West. “It is not an unusual life curve for Westerners—to live in and be shaped by the bigness, sparseness, space, clarity and hopefulness of the west.”
¹
Both Elizas were shaped by such a West and by their Christian faith.

The intricacies of Eliza the daughter’s family life, the strug
gles with her father, her sisters sometimes living with her, sometimes not, are based on census data, letters, and a fascinating piece written by the housekeeper of Millie, Mrs. Lizzie Reinhart Weber, in her later years. In it she describes Eliza coming to the luxurious house John Brown built for Millie on the original Spalding homestead to get a cutting of a flower, but she did not go upstairs to visit her invalid sister. Were there longstanding issues? Was it sibling rivalry, older sister being miffed at a perceived coddling of youngest sister? Or was Eliza simply in a hurry that day? Clearly family was important to her, and her sisters did spend much of their time with her and Andrew Warren, including following them to Touchet with their father and Rachel.

I am indebted to a Brownsville history written by Margaret Standish Carey and Patricia Hoy Hainline and to a series of columns they wrote for the local newspaper called
Past Times
. I appreciated Glenn Harrison, a Linn County and Oregon Trail historian, who provided details of churches Henry Spalding started in the area as well as other resources and access to his books by Clifford Drury. Sharon and Terry McCoy of Atavista Farm in Brownsville shared their lovely home once lived in by Amelia “Millie” Spalding Brown, youngest sibling of Eliza Warren, and provided a copy of that letter from Mrs. Weber, her housekeeper/caregiver. Most of Mrs. Weber’s comments were related to Millie’s invalid status and her unhappy marriage, but she did comment about Eliza’s distance from her sister as well. The McCoys also had several newspaper clippings believed to be from the
Democrat-Herald
about the loss of the Warren home by fire in 1973, leaving only the smokehouse; articles about Timothy meeting Eliza years later; and a newspaper account of the mute Indian who remembered Eliza from when he cared for her as a child. The Brownsville Historical Museum
provided many documents, including a copy of “In the Days of Pioneers” by Cyrus H. Walker and a newspaper story “In Earlier Days” by Fred Lockley.

An article with pictures of
American Indian Art
magazine of 1977 included information about Henry Spalding’s relationship with one of the Board members and Henry’s shipment of Nez Perce regalia and daily items of both a practical nature and beauty in exchange for necessities such as hoes and plows and children’s clothing. The story of the first printing press and the publication of the Nez Perce primer and the book of Matthew are based on facts provided by a number of sources, but of special note was a copy of the diary provided to me by hospital chaplain and descendant Kit Hall. The diary was kept by Sarah Hall on her overland journey bringing the printing press. Eliza the mother’s use of pictures she drew, her facility with languages, and the other missionaries’ ire about the Spaldings teaching in Sahaptin, the Nez Perce language, rather than in English and their conversions in the native language are all documented.

There is within this story post-traumatic stress disorder, shame, and survivor guilt, but I also hope there is transformation. Everyone in the Spalding family was affected by what happened at Waiilatpu on that cold November day in 1847. In our generation, boundless articles and theories exist about post-traumatic stress, about how shame and trauma shape our life choices, but we are still coming to terms with how to walk beside those who struggle with these profoundly painful memories. They must sort out perceived guilt for action or inaction (survivor guilt) and actual culpability for a tragedy. I relied on survivor commentaries as well as on my own experience as a mental health professional and professional articles. One of particular interest was written by Kathleen Nader, DSW,
“Guilt Following Traumatic Events” as part of the online PTSD Resources for Survivors and Caregivers.
²
I created a daughter, Eliza, who assessed herself a failure for what she might have done in normal circumstances without understanding that how we respond in traumatic circumstances is quite different. Both Elizas made judgments about actions that were misinterpretations of what the human heart is capable of in those traumatic times, whether one can aid others as much as desired, whether one can stop or interfere with the harm going on. I had Eliza the daughter overestimate her sense of control at times and other times live with a grave sense of worthlessness. Recovery involves seeing that “traumatized self” with new eyes. I also found Brené Brown, DSW, and her work
Daring Bravely
about wholehearted living to be very insightful for understanding the Elizas’ lives.

This novel explored the Elizas and their families’ response to the trauma but did not delve deeply into the trauma of the Nez Perce people and their struggles from the war waged by neighboring tribes, the month-long siege by neighboring peoples, and the wrenching away of a family whom many loved and cared about, as evidenced by their absolute joy recorded when the missionaries were allowed to return to Lapwai. Timothy’s being unable to rescue Eliza had a profound effect on her, but I suspect it also challenged Timothy’s sense of powerlessness. Yes, the non-Indians wrote that story, and other stories of the Nez Perce and Chief Joseph’s leading his people to Canada that ended in tragedy. But the natives have told stories, too, about their asking for people to come and bring them the “Book of Heaven,” and many descendants still sing of the Spaldings. My own work for seventeen years with Sahaptin linguist tribes
caused me to wonder if all native peoples might be dealing with PTSD based on the missed understandings, tragedies, and lost hopes that the coming of the non-Indian brought to their own communities. They have dealt with deaths by disease and wars; disconnection from homelands and relocation to reservations; and too many times to count, the forced march of their elders, women, and children to wilderness places. A contemporary book,
Lewis
and Clark Among the Nez Perce: Strangers in the Land
of the Nimíipuu
by Allen V. Pinkham and Steven R. Evans, published by the Dakota Institute Press in 2013, offers new insights about this tribe of remarkable people and what the “strangers” may have missed that the Spaldings discovered by living side by side with them for fifteen years. Few have missed the traditions of hospitality and kindness of The People shown to that early expedition and to the Spaldings and that continue to this generation.

With good intention the Missionary Board responded to the call for someone to go and teach the Book of Heaven, and they sent the Spaldings and Whitmans. But what happened—even without the trauma of Waiilatpu—caused as dramatic a cultural change as would the first contact of earthlings with beings of a far-off planet.