Talk:Population history of American indigenous peoples/Source

Excerpts from The Effect of Smallpox on the Destiny of the Amerindian (Stearn & Stearn, 1945). All notes in parenthesis are in the original.

[page 79]

[...]

In 1831 smallpox was accidentally introduced among the Pawnee, dwelling along the Platte River (about a hundred miles north of its junction with the Missouri River) by fur traders and whiskey settlers. According to Cailin (86, p. 24) some ten thousand or more, representing about half of their number, perished in a few months. Some one of the fur traders had threatened these Indians that if they did not comply with certain conditions "he would let the smallpox out of a bottle and destroy them." From this, apparently fairly innocent (in this case) threat, the Indians developed the tradition that they had been purposely infected, and for a long time afterward dealt with the fur traders with considerable distrust. The Rev. Issaac McCoy (as quoted by Abel) charged that white men had deliberately spread smallpox among the Indians of the southwest, and that the Pawnee had thus become infected (84, p. 319). Before this epidemic the fur traders had found these Indians among the best to deal with, but the trade now suddenly languished, and, according to Indian laws of retribution, quite a number of white men paid for their possible culpability with death.

[...]

During the years 1836-1840 the mortality from smallpox rose to an appalling total. In 1836 the disease broke out

[page 80]

among the Indians living near the fur trading depots such as Fort Vancouver, and on the northwest waters. One story, not verified, relates that it was sown among the Blackfeet through distribution of infected articles brought from St. Louis by a negro named Beckworth (48, v. 2, p. 602).

[...]

[page 81]

In June, 1837, the American Fur Company's steamboat, St. Peter, left St. Louis to carry merchandise, supplies, and passengers to the forts and trading posts along the Missouri River. It proved to be a disastrous journey for both whites and Indians, though all accounts, letters and journals give evidence of the vain attempts of the white traders to protect the red men from the scourge they most feared. When the steamboat reached the Blacksnake Hills, a trading post sixty miles above Fort Clark (fifty-six miles above the modern Bismark, North Dakota) a mulatto hand on board broke out with smallpox pustules. Other passengers on the boat, including Mr. Halsey, who was on his way to take charge of Fort Union, three miles above the mouth of the Yellowstone River, contracted the disease, some dying enroute. The boat stopped near Fort Clark on June 18, apparently before smallpox had been recognized on board, and not until about a month later, July 14, did the first death from smallpox among the Mandan take place. (84, p.121) The story is told that when the St. Peter arrived at Fort Clark a Mandan chief stole a blanket from a man on the boat who was suffering from the disease. Chardon tried to recover the blanket, promising the thief pardon and new blankets in exchange for the stolen one. (103, p.41) This act is supposed to have been the mode of transmission to the Mandan, but Chardon's journal itself does not give more than a vague illusive reference to a blanket, by no means lending credence to the story. However, the epidemic would have no doubt reached the

[p. 82]

Mandan under any conditions from the other tribes trading at Fort Union and Fort McKenzie.

The disastrous epidemic thus started is graphically recorded in the journals of two traders who were living at the time in the forts or trading posts, and who associated daily with the Indians. From those Indians trading at the forts the disease spread among the surrounding tribes, bringing death and terror. Such a catastrophe was of enormous importance to the traders because their livelihood depended on the furs brought to them by the Indians. Furthermore, their lives were constantly menaced by the terrified Indians, who believed them to be the source of the scourge.

[... p. 87]

According to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, "every exertion was made to confine the diseased, and much was done ... to arrest the ravages by use of vaccination"; the commissioner also claims that vaccine matter was sent by a gentleman travelling to the Columbia River, and a physician was despatched for the sole purpose of vaccinating the affected tribes while the pestilence was at its height. The doctor vaccinated some three thousand. (107, p.73) Apparently, however, vaccination as a means of halting this epidemic was employed only very late, after the contagion had become widespread. Mention has been made of the fatal results of the variolation of persons at Fort Union on the upper Missouri at the beginning of the epidemic. In other attempts fortune was better. [...]

Not until August, 1838, do the Indians of the upper Missouri River seem to have been able to profit from vaccination. It is recorded that at this time two different war parties, in quest of Assiniboin, went into Fort Clark, and that all were vaccinated by Mr. D.D. Mitchell (84, p.162). At Fort Pierre and Fort Tecumseh vaccine may have been available and in use as early as 1831 to 1832. However, in the face of the high mortality, and the statement of Secretary Cass in 1832 that no surgeon would probably be sent higher

[p. 88]

up the Missouri River than the Mandan, or even the Arickaree, it is unlikely that many Indians had been successfully vaccinated. One might be inclined to accuse the American Fur Company, or the government, of neglect, but the history of smallpox vaccination among the Indians shows how difficult it was to vaccinate in any complete manner the roving, highly superstitious natives. They were generally persuaded to be vaccinated only having been threatened with extermination, or when coerced.