This is a excellent biography if you are looking for historical writing that incorporates primary documents-- entries from Narcissa Whitman's letters. The only thing that could enhance this book is more of a look at the Cayuse Indians who killed Dr. and Mrs. Whitman. The Cayuse felt that the Doctor was poisoning them He could heal the pioneers, but his medicine didn't work on the Natives. ( )

Narcissa Whitman and her husband headed West to be missionaries to the Indians. She was the first white woman to travel the 2,000 miles on the Oregon Trail