Narcissa Whitman was important because she was one of the first women to go to the Pacific Northwest and was a protestant missionary. In 1836, her husband and she left New York to set up the Waiilatpu Mission in the southeast corner of current day Washington State.(Green 74, Lambert 136) This mission was positioned near the Cayuse and Walla Walla Native Americans. Protestant Missionaries focus was to bring Christianity to the Native people of the west. Narcissa and her husband tried to help the Native Americans. However, the way they tried to change the Natives to be the same as them was not taken well by the tribes. In 1847, on November 29th, the Cayuse Tribe killed Narcissa, her husband, and 13 other of the mission’s residents.(Lambert 136) Narcissa was one of the first of many important protestant missionaries of the Oregon country who paved the road for many others who came later.