Disease in the Great Plains

Hamalainen makes several references to disease on the frontier and in the colonies. On page 111 he describes a devastating continent-wide smallpox epidemic that killed 2/3 of the Eastern Comanche population, possibly 16,000 people. Epidemics such as this one were not isolated occurrences and presented real threats to life on the plains. It is interesting to think about the possible outcomes of European and Indigenous imperialism and expansion without the great cost of infectious disease. The book uses the “virgin soil” analogy in regards to the high lethality of disease in the Indian populations. This refers to the fact that the Europeans had introduced foreign diseases which the Indians had never been exposed to and therefore carried no immunity to. Just to provide a bit of background, it is disadvantageous for a virus or a bacteria to kill its host. In order for it to be transmitted to other organisms and “live on” it needs a living host. When a naive population is infected, both the disease and the population must evolve in order to reach equilibrium. That’s not to say that the Europeans were completely immune to the infectious diseases they brought over. Colonists were very susceptible to disease, partly due to many dangerous/ineffective medical practices and general lack of sanitation. In fact, during the Revolutionary War many American soldiers died of a smallpox outbreak. More about this can be found in Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-82 by Elizabeth Anne Fenn. I’m posting a link that contains an interesting journal article (pdf) about medical history in colonial America.

I’m also posting another journal article (pdf) that describes The High Plains Smallpox Epidemic of 1837-38. This epidemic was “one of the most virulent, destructive, and disruptive epidemics known on the American continent. Before the disease burned out, the total death rate soared well into the tens of thousands, the Mandan tribal population dropped below the genetic survival threshold, the balance of power among Indian tribes in the upper West shifted as entire sub-bands disappeared, social structures and customs altered to meet tribal survival needs, and the widespread Upper Missouri trade system was disrupted.” It also “contributed to the conditions that led to a quarter-century of Indian wars.”