the journey, some in the migration grew wary of White’s leadership and L. B. Hastings was selected as leader for a time until the party split into two groups. François X. Matthieu along with several other Canadians joined the party along the way to Oregon. White arrived at Fort Vancouver ahead of the main party, arriving on September 20, 1842. White also returned as an official agent of the United States Government, after appointment as sub-Indian agent. Also in 1842 in his official capacity he brokered a code of conduct for the Nez Perce tribe as well as placating tensions with the Walla Walla and Cayuse tribes near the Whitman Mission in the eastern section of the region. In Oregon he served as teacher to William J. Bailey, training Bailey as a doctor. On September 22, 1842, White organized a meeting at Champoeg where he informed the settlers that he had been commissioned by the United States War Department as a sub-Indian Agent and implied that the pioneers could select him as their leader. He appointed judges to deal with disputes between Native Americans and United States citizens, and even between citizens. In 1843, White was selected as one of twelve members of the second Wolf Meeting to determine if the settlers wanted to form a government while waiting for the Oregon Question to be resolved. He was not involved in the final meetings, but in May 1843 the settlers voted 52 to 50 in favor of creating the Provisional Government of Oregon. The following year White was involved with the Cockstock Incident when the provisional government’s recorder George LeBreton was killed by a Native American by the name of Cockstock. He had tried to capture Cockstock prior to the bloodshed, and then worked to resolve tensions between the settlers and Native Americans after Cockstock and two settlers were killed. White then discovered a pass through the Oregon Coast Range to what is now Newport, Oregon in 1845 before leaving the region with a petition from the Provisional Government to the United States Congress that same year. According to historian Frances Fuller Victor, White, through his exploration and advocacy for a southern cutoff to the Willamette Valley, may have been primarily responsible for the disastrous Meek Cutoff party of 1845. Later life Elijah White returned to what had become the Oregon Territory in 1850 to promote the community of Pacific