Tag: smallpox

Grand Ronde Reservation, Oregon indians, Rogue Valley, Siletz ReservationLeave a comment

The Second Plague: Indian Reservations

David G. Lewis, PhD

Much has been written about the impact of pandemics on indigenous populations. Columbus and his exploratory contemporaries brought slavery (some tribes had slavery already) and conquest to the new worlds, and that conquest was greatly aided by the fact that the conquistadores passed on numerous illnesses, diseases and viruses, to these new worlds. These illnesses attacked virgin populations of indigenous peoples who for the first time had to contend with new strains of influenza, smallpox, malaria, measles, and other illnesses that carried away millions of people to their graves. The estimated worldwide deaths by epidemics are in the 90 million … Continue reading The Second Plague: Indian Reservations

Anthropology, colonization, columbia river, General History, Native Issues, Oregon indians1 Comment

Baleful Gifts of Civilization: Smallpox Epidemic 1853

David G. Lewis, PhD

  It is well recording in numerous sources that diseases from Europe came with the exploring Whitemen and infected millions of the indigenous peoples of the World with waves of pandemics, causing the death of more people in the exploratory period than all of the wars of humankind. An estimated 100-300 million indigenous peoples worldwide died in this manner, a number which is a broad estimate because no one knows for sure how many indigenous peoples existed before the disease and viruses visited them. Many indigenous people, those of the island communities, Australia, and the Americas had no resistance to … Continue reading Baleful Gifts of Civilization: Smallpox Epidemic 1853