Smallpox killed how many native americans

The blankets and clothing the Indians looted from the patients in the hospital and corpses in the cemetery, carried back to their villages, reportedly touched off a smallpox epidemic.

The French lost the war and left their Indian allies holding the bag, and in Chief Pontiac and his colleagues sparked an uprising against English settlers in the Great Lakes region that had Lord Jeffery Amherst and the British forces close to despair. Ecuyer, whose native language was French, also spoke German, the predominant language of his native Switzerland; the British had retained him because many settlers in Pennsylvania also spoke German. Smallpox had broken out among the British garrison, and during a parley on June 24, , Ecuyer gave besieging Lenape warriors several items taken from smallpox patients.

Smallpox did break out among the Indian tribes whose warriors were besieging the fort—19th-century historian Francis Parkman estimated that 60 to 80 Indians in the Ohio Valley died in a localized epidemic. We must on this occasion use every stratagem in our power to reduce them. Ecuyer, in fact, had acted before receiving orders from Bouquet or Amherst. But a more conventional military solution ended the standoff.

The British lost about 50 men, the Indians about the same. What role smallpox played in mitigating the Indian resistance remains debatable. The actual conspirators were Franco-Swiss acting with English approval. As whole tribes came into regular contact with whites, the results were inevitable. What happened to the Missouri River farming tribes and the Plains tribes in general in —38 was the culmination of three centuries of tragedy. The tribe worst ravaged was the Mandan, a Siouan-speaking farming tribe intermarried, to some degree, with French traders and already decimated by a smallpox epidemic at the end of the 18th century.

Jacob Halsey, another fur company official, reported smallpox shortly after the steamboat stopped at Fort Clark. Halsey himself was quarantined when he reached Fort Union; he recovered from the disease, but it claimed his half-blood wife. Smallpox exploded among the Mandans. They blamed Chardon, whose respected Lakota wife had recently died, though not of smallpox. They were his bread and butter. The Mandans, however, remained convinced Chardon had somehow contrived to infect them.

Would-be avengers stalked him until they themselves keeled over to the awful explosion of smallpox. Although his informant told Curtis that the deaths were caused by an epidemic, others reported it was caused by warfare. So this may or may not refer to the late s smallpox epidemic. A person with smallpox variola major infects others by passing the virus through the air by coughing or by coming into physical contact.

Once another person is infected, there is no way to stop the disease until it has run its course and the sick person either dies or survives. One to two weeks after infection the first symptoms occur with fever, headache, and pains. About two days later, rashes appear as red spots on the face, hands and feet. Smallpox symptoms last about two more weeks.

The red spots spread across the whole body and get larger, becoming pustular lesions. These lesions that look like blisters itch until they scab, dry up, and fall off. Survivors are left with deep scars or pockmarks on the face and body. It takes about one month after the initial infection for the disease to run its course.

Those who survive are immune from the disease for life. Worldwide studies show that the fatality rates to people never before exposed to smallpox are at least 30 percent of the entire population and sometimes as high as 50 to 70 percent.

A vaccination to smallpox was discovered in by an Englishman and first used in Puget Sound during the outbreak. The s smallpox epidemic affected a large area of the Northwest Coast of North America ranging from Alaska to Oregon. In , English fur trader Nathaniel Portlock noticed it to the far north. 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.

Indigenous groups, including the New Mexico Pueblo and the Hurons, blamed members of their own communities as well as white missionaries for witchcraft. Many groups, like the Hurons, thought that the Jesuits were witches because they possessed charms and religious paintings, demonstrated much concern with how one died, and described communion bread as containing human flesh.

The Jesuits were often blamed when an infected person died after having Holy water sprinkled on them. The Hurons were terrified of the Jesuits and prohibited them from entering their villages. Substantial social interactions with the Jesuits and French traders often helped to spread the infection further. Native participation in the Canadian Fur Trade and Hudson Bay Company of the Upper Missouri River, as well as Euroamerican fur brigades, often brought infection to the main centers and carried the disease to all affiliated trading posts.

Native American conversions to Christianity gave the indigenous people an acquired desire for European goods and another reason to eagerly participate in the fur trade, which increased exposure to European pathogens. The Oregon Trail also acted as an avenue for the spread of epidemics. By the late s, Amerindians in New France knew that Europeans often carried smallpox and avoided them to prevent infection.

Native soldiers at Fort Presqu'ile would not proceed to Niagara after learning of the disease presence there. Those participating in the war came into contact with infected British soldiers and contracted smallpox. The Native Americans blamed the French and English and would not ally with them until the disease ran its course. As a result, the French and British blamed each other for the smallpox transmissions to the Native Americans in order to gain indigenous favor and alliances.

There are historical references of deliberate transmission of smallpox from Europeans to Native Americans. In , the British general Jeffrey Amherst gave blankets taken from infected corpses to deliberately infect nearby natives.

Many legends of similar instances of intentional transmission exist throughout the contact period. Written documents indicate that many Europeans were using smallpox on their side "It has pleased Our Lord to give the said people a pestilence of smallpox that does not cease…". Consequently, many European explorers and traders received death threats from embittered victims and relatives of the deceased. But Kelton cautions against focusing too much on the smallpox blanket incident as a documented method of attack against Native Americans.

He says the tactic, however callous and brutal, is only a small part of a larger story of brutality in the s and s. During this period British forces tried to drive out Native Americans by cutting down their corn and burning their homes , turning them into refugees. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you.

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