After living in West Virginia and Ohio, in 1903 he moved to the frontier of Yakima, Washington, in the eastern part of the state.

In 1914 he was adopted as an honorary member of the Yakama, after helping over several years to defeat a federal bill that would have required them to give up much of their land in order to get any irrigation rights.

He became politically active as he represented the Plateau Native Americans against mistreatment by the United States federal government.

He was considered an amateur in his day, but today his anthropology studies are deemed important enough to have a permanent home in Washington State University's special collections department.

[1] Current scholars describe his work as "significant" in his field, and helping to preserve the cultural heritage of the Native American tribes of the Columbia Basin.

"[4] Of his accomplishments, she said: "McWhorter dedicated his energies to comprehending the cultures of the Native American tribes who surrounded him, and he committed himself to recounting the legends and epic personal stories of those he saw passing.

[5]: 1  From his childhood on, Lucullus rejected a formal education and adapted his own methods of learning through his love for nature and the outdoors.

He explored historical and Native American sites and began to read widely in history and the emerging field of archeology.

As a teenager, he started working in his father's beef cattle business, and had this as a part of his life in his following decades.

In 1855 various Native American leaders in Washington State had signed treaties with territorial governor Isaac Stevens, ceding their lands to the federal government and agreeing to move into reservations.

[9]: 57 In 1906, US Senator Wesley L. Jones from Washington proposed a bill in Congress to require the Yakama to give up three-fourths of their remaining land in exchange for irrigation rights.

McWhorter befriended Yoom-Tee-Bee, Chief of the Yakama, and sought to aid the people in their fight to preserve their rights and land.

Together, the two rode on horseback across the Yakama reservation talking to residents and encouraging them not to sign any documents for US government officials.

[2] He continued as an active force in the Yakima reservation for the rest of his life, attending council meetings, and acting as a mediator between the Yakama and officials of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).

"To hear Yellow Wolf," he wrote, "was to be impressed by the unquestionable candor of his conviction that he and his associates were fully justified in all their actions".

"[16] As recounted by McWhorter, Yellow Wolf’s story was the anthem of all Nez Perce who fought for their way of life and lost.

Later McWhorter worked to complete his "Field History" of the Nez Perce, which was published posthumously in 1951 as Hear Me, My Chiefs!

[17] His final piece of work covered the history of the Nez Perce in Washington State's Palouse region and the events following the end of the war of 1877.

[6]: 77  For most of his life, he had fought to preserve Native American identities, working as a persistent historian and caring friend.

Without the efforts of McWhorter, the Nez Perce story would likely have been told only by white men ignorant of their traditional life and culture.

[6]: 25 The participants in this touring company wore traditional Native American dress, and performed their dances, and drumming.

[18] In the correspondence between them that followed their meeting, Garcia wrote several thousand pages about life in Montana and among the Native American tribes there.

[2] In reviewing a new 1997 biography of him, Montana State University professor Alanna Kathleen Brown wrote, For over 400 years, while Euroamericans were moving west, they pretended that they settled a "wilderness."

When confronted by native peoples, the vast majority asserted the privileges of a superior race, using force and law to take what they wanted, justifying their greed as the manifestation of divine will.

He dedicated his energies to comprehending the cultures of the Native American tribes who surrounded him, and he committed himself to recounting the legends and epic personal stories of those he saw passing.