Also in 1847 , Palmer traveled with his family to Oregon as captain of that year 's major wagon train . While passing through the Walla Walla Valley he met Marcus and Narcissa Whitman at their mission shortly before their deaths in the Whitman massacre — the event that precipitated the Cayuse War . Perhaps motivated by meeting the Whitmans , Palmer later returned to serve as a peace commissioner to tribes considering joining the Cayuse . At the outset of the war he was appointed as commissary-general of the Provisional Government ’s militia forces
Whitman massacre
Whitman massacre
Joel Palmer