In Memoriam: The Cayuse Five — the Men of Weyíiletpuu.
“Today, we remember the men of the Weyíiletpuu people. We remember the families they were born into; the ones they loved, the ground they walked on and the air they breathed. They were, and still are, connected to their people and to the earth — and this is where their memory continues.” - Gerard Rodriguez Associate Director, Director of Tribal Affairs
On June 3rd, 1850, five men were hanged at a site near Willamette Falls in what is known today as Oregon City. They were from the Weyíiletpuu (‘Cayuse people’). The story of their arrests, trial and execution — the fairness of which was disputed even at the time — was framed within the colonizers narrative, and after their execution, their bodies were never returned to their people.
Today, over 170 years later, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla, which include the Weyíiletpuu, the Umatilla, and the Walla Walla, remember their relatives who died for their people, and continue the search for their remains to bring them back and honor them in the home where they belong. Even as the search continues, their names will never be forgotten:
Ti’ílaka’aykt, Tamáhas, ‘Iceyéeye Cilúukiis, K’oy’am’á Šuumkíin, and Łókomus.
Read more of their story, as told by their own people, in the Confederated Umatilla Journal.
Paintings of Ti’ílaka’aykt and Tamáhas by Paul Kane in the Royal Ontario Museum, Canada.