This apparent first smallpox epidemic on the northwest coast coincides with the first direct European contact, and is the most virulent of the deadly European diseases that will sweep over the region during the next 80 to years. In his seminal work, The Coming of the Spirit of Pestilence , historian Robert Boyd estimates that the s smallpox epidemic killed more than 11, Western Washington Indians, reducing the population from about 37, to 26, By the s, when the first EuroAmerican settlers arrived at Alki Point and along the Duwamish River, diseases had already taken a devastating toll on native peoples and their cultures.
During the year period from the s to , smallpox, measles, influenza, and other diseases had killed an estimated 28, Native Americans in Western Washington, leaving about 9, survivors. The Indian population continued to decline, although at a slower rate, until the beginning of the twentieth century when it reached its low point.
Since then the Native American population has been slowly increasing. In , members of the Vancouver Expedition were the first Europeans to witness the effects of the smallpox epidemic along Puget Sound. While Lieutenant Puget explored the southern reaches of the sound soon to receive his name, he met some Indians in a canoe. The Vancouver expedition encountered likely evidence of the havoc wrought by the epidemic. Boyd conducted extensive research on the effect of European diseases on Northwest coast Indians.
In his book, The Coming of the Spirit of Pestilence, he states that although there are several possible explanations for why these villages were void of human habitation seasonal migration topping the list , the evidence provided by Vancouver and others who explored the Northwest coast strongly suggest a disease of epidemic proportions. A few Indian oral histories survive that may describe the s epidemic. In the s, an "aged informant" from the Squamish tribe, located near the mouth of the Fraser River, related the history of a catastrophic illness to ethnographer Charles Hill-Tout.
The ethnographer wrote:. During the first or second decade of the s, the photographer of Native Americans Edward S. Curtis interviewed an Indian who lived on the northwest side of Vancouver Island.
In the winter of —64, the U. Army pursued scorched-earth tactics—destroying their peach trees and cornfields—to drive them to a barren reservation at Bosque Redondo, on the Pecos River in New Mexico. But even though their population has grown over time, the legacies of the Long Walk remain. Lack of access to clean water makes hand-washing difficult.
Many people cannot afford food, hand sanitizer, and other necessities. And there is an acute shortage of hospital beds and medical personnel.
Many public officials, health experts, and journalists are drawing attention to the disproportionate impact of COVID on communities of color. Even so, large segments of America are indifferent, if not outright hostile, to recognizing these disparities and the inequities underlying them.
Native Americans are visible to the general public far more often as sports mascots than as actual communities. Countering the invisibility of Native peoples, of course, means greater awareness of how COVID is affecting them and enhanced efforts to provide resources to help them combat the current outbreak.
It also means creating a deeper understanding of the history of American Indians and disease. Although the virgin-soil-epidemic hypothesis may have been well intentioned, its focus on the brief, if horrific, moment of initial contact consigns disease safely to the distant past and provides colonizers with an alibi. Indigenous communities are fighting more than a virus. They are contending with the ongoing legacy of centuries of violence and dispossession.
Skip to content Site Navigation The Atlantic. Henry Bouquet, a subordinate on the western frontier during the French and Indian War. Early American historian Elizabeth Fenn of the University of Colorado Boulder lays out her theory on what happened in her article in the Journal of American History. In the late spring of , Delaware, Shawnee and Mingo warriors, inspired by Ottawa war leader Pontiac , laid siege to Fort Pitt, an outpost at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers in present-day downtown Pittsburgh.
Sir Jeffrey Amherst wrote a letter regarding the use of smallpox blankets as a weapon against Native Americans. Simeon Ecuyer, reported in a June 16 message to his superior, Philadelphia-based Col. Bouquet, in turn, passed along the news about the smallpox inside Fort Pitt to his own superior, Amherst, in a June 23 letter.
We must, on this occasion, Use Every Stratagem in our power to Reduce them. This paper looks at social implications of the smallpox epidemics because this disease may have contributed significantly to Native American population decline. Ethnohistorical sources document smallpox's effect on Native American morale, health, social structure, and population size.
Some researchers argue that the way Native Americans viewed the disease, as well as their methods of disease treatment and response to the epidemics, exacerbated mortality from the disease. Traditional indigenous medical treatments such as sweatlodges worsened smallpox mortality rates, and significant population loss from the epidemics caused drops in fertility, loss of cultural knowledge, and high suicide rates.
However, Kelton argues that actions such as quarantining, burning infected sites, and incorporating the disease in their religious systems e. Smallpox Dance decreased the mortality rates. However simple these polar arguments may seem, indigenous responses to the smallpox epidemics varied considerably by region and time. This paper reviews the ethnohistorical evidence concerning Native American ideas concerning smallpox's origin and cause, medical treatments, changes in cultural traditions, methods of coping, patterns of sociocultural change, and religion.
Kelton's views on self-preservational behaviors during smallpox epidemics are tested in the details. Each section was written in rough chronological order while reviewing different geographical regions within the United States.
A Case Study: Smallpox The smallpox virus is caused by Variola major, closely related to cowpox, monkeypox, and camelpox. The infection either manifests itself as hemorrhagic, in which the rash contributes to hemorrhaging of the mucus membranes and skin, or malignant, in which the rash never develops into pustules. Both infections can be fatal. Even today, no treatment is available other than management of symptoms.
Following infection with Variola, a non-infectious incubation period exists for approximately 12 days. Approximately three days later, the fever subsides and the characteristic rash develops on the face, forearms, and hands, followed by rash on the trunk.
The smallpox lesions ulcerate in the nose and mouth, releasing more virus down the throat and often suffocating the individual. The pustules form infectious scabs eight to fourteen days after the onset of symptoms. The infection is spread through respiratory contacts until the last scabs fall off, and is promoted by close contact, crowding, salivary contamination, and soiled linens.
Infectious dried crusts of the virus have also been isolated from house dust a year after the infection. In the Americas, mortality rates were higher due to the virgin soil phenomenon, in which indigenous populations were at a higher risk of being affected by epidemics because there had been no previous contact with the disease, preventing them from gaining some form of immunity. Estimates of mortality rates resulting from smallpox epidemics range between Smallpox epidemics affected the demography of the stricken populations for to years after the initial first infection.
Indigenous Perspectives and Historical Interactions During the early contact period keep in mind "early contact period" represented different years throughout the many different regions of the United States , many Native Americans did not believe that disease was transmitted between individuals. Instead, they ascribed disease to supernatural forces.
For example, during the early s, Northern Plains groups considered smallpox to be a personification of the Bad Spirit. Disease was often thought of as punishment by the "Master of Life" for mistreatment of animals or other people. During the s, the Creeks and Cherokees considered the spread of smallpox to be punishment for violations of tribal laws, such as sexual intercourse in the cornfields and village-wide violations. By , the Cree attributed the epidemics to anger from God.
Animal spirits were also blamed. According to traditional Cherokee knowledge, animals created diseases to protect themselves against humans.
The Kwanthum of Vancouver described a dragon that lived in a swamp and breathed upon children. Its breath caused sores to break out "…and they burned with the heat, and they died to feed this monster. And so the village was deserted, and never again would the Indians live on that spot".
The Salish blamed a salmon season in which the fish were covered in sores and blotches. They reacted by killing as many of the fish as possible. These types of explanations were common before Europeans were connected with smallpox incidence.
Witchcraft was also a popular explanation throughout the contact period, often resulting in the torture or killing of accused individuals.
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