Wascopam Mission facts for kids
The Wascopam Mission was also known as the Dalles Mission. It was a special branch of the Methodist Mission that worked in the Pacific Northwest. This mission was the first one built outside the Willamette Valley. It opened on March 21, 1838, at Celilo Falls along the Columbia River. Two reverends, Daniel Lee and Henry K. W. Perkins, started it.
Starting the Mission
Most of the wood for the mission buildings was cut by the nearby Wasco people. Because of this, the mission was often called Wascopam, named after them. The mission had several buildings, including a schoolhouse, a garden, a stable, and a barn. There were also two homes and a clear field next to the wooden huts where Native American villagers lived.
Supplies for the mission came from Hudson's Bay Company trading posts like Fort Vancouver and Fort Nez Percés. They also got supplies from other Methodist stations, such as Mission Bottom and later Mission Mill. People from the Chinookan and Walla Walla tribes helped escort the supplies. Once, during a trip, food ran low, and they had to eat a horse until they could buy salmon from a Clackamas village.
The main Native American tribes that the missionaries tried to teach were the Walla Wallas, the Wascos, the Wishram, the Klickitats, the Cascades, and the Shastas. The missionaries used a place called Pulpit Rock to give their speeches to the Native Americans. At first, they were successful in helping some people learn about their beliefs.
Pulpit Rock: A Special Place
Pulpit Rock is a large rock, about 12 feet (3.7 meters) tall. It is located in what is now The Dalles, Oregon. Before European settlers arrived, nature carved this rock in an open, slightly sloped area. Methodist missionaries used this rock to preach to local Native Americans during the 1830s and 1840s.
Today, the rock stands at the corner of E. 12th and Court streets. It is just south of The Dalles-Wahtonka High School. There is also a historical marker there. The city decided to keep the rock in the middle of the street because of its important history. A painting on a building in downtown The Dalles shows the rock before the roads and neighborhood were built around it.
The Mission Closes
The Wascopam Mission was sold to Marcus Whitman in 1847 for $600. He planned to move there. However, after a sad event known as the Whitman Massacre and the start of the Cayuse War, the Oregon militia took over the mission.
The mission was given back to the Methodist Mission in 1849. Since the ABCFM (another group) had not yet paid for the station, its bill was canceled. The Methodists did not use The Dalles mission again. Instead, they sold it to the United States government for $24,000.
The U.S. Army built Fort Dalles in the 1850s on the same spot where the Wascopam Mission had been. This fort became the center of the modern town of The Dalles. The remaining Native American people living in the area were moved by the U.S. Army to the Warm Springs Indian Reservation.
Later, there was a legal disagreement that went all the way to the Supreme Court in 1883. The court decided that the Methodists did not have a claim to the land in The Dalles. Three years later, the church paid $23,000 to settlers who had already bought land on the old mission site.
