How did smallpox affect native peoples on the Great Plains?

How did smallpox affect native peoples on the Great Plains?

A smallpox epidemic spreads through Native communities in the West, killing 10,000 people in the Northern Plains alone. Tribes affected include Siksika (Blackfoot), Kanai (Blood), Chaticks Si Chaticks (Pawnee), Nakoda (Assiniboine), Numakiki (Mandan), Sahnish (Arikara), and Dakota, among many others.

How did smallpox affect the Americas?

By the following century, smallpox had afflicted a large number of North American tribes. The culmination of the outbreak was an attack on Boston in 1721, which brought sickness to almost 60 per cent of the population. By 1758, the disease spread out among the natives in New York and New Jersey.

How did disease affect natives?

Native Americans suffered 80-90% population losses in most of America with influenza, typhoid, measles and smallpox taking the greatest toll in devastating epidemics that were compounded by the significant loss of leadership.

Why were American Indians vulnerable to European diseases?

Native Americans were also vulnerable during the colonial era because they had never been exposed to European diseases, like smallpox, so they didn’t have any immunity to the disease, as some Europeans did.

How did Native Americans respond to smallpox?

The Native Americans had to respond to massive population loss within their own families and tribal groups. One of the most commonly cited responses to the smallpox epidemic is suicide, which also acted as another factor that increased the overall smallpox mortality rate (through associated deaths).

What caused the smallpox epidemic?

Historians trace the global spread of smallpox to the growth of civilizations and exploration. Expanding trade routes over the centuries also led to the spread of the disease.

How did smallpox affect the First Nations?

Some communities of Plains Indigenous peoples lost 75 per cent or more of their members. It is estimated that more than half of First Nations people living along the Saskatchewan River (territory of the Nehiyawak, Saulteaux, Assiniboine and Niitsitapi) died of smallpox or epidemic-related starvation.

How many Native Americans died of smallpox?

In his seminal work, The Coming of the Spirit of Pestilence, historian Robert Boyd estimates that the 1770s smallpox epidemic killed more than 11,000 Western Washington Indians, reducing the population from about 37,000 to 26,000.

Why didn’t the Europeans get smallpox?

Many of the diseases, such as syphilis, smallpox, measles, mumps, and bubonic plague, were of European origin, and Native Americans exhibited little immunity because they had no previous exposure to those diseases. This caused greater mortality than would have occurred if these diseases been endemic to the Americas.

When Native Americans first encountered Europeans Why were they so susceptible to European diseases quizlet?

The Europeans had the advantage of being immune to certain disease. They did not have to farm by hand which the Native Americans did. The Native Americans did not have cattle which is the reason why they were susceptible to diseases.

What Native American tribes were affected by smallpox?

In summer 1639, a smallpox epidemic struck the Huron natives in the St. Lawrence and Great Lakes regions. The disease had reached the Huron tribes through French colonial traders from Québec who remained in the region throughout the winter.

Why did diseases like smallpox affect Indians so badly?

Why did diseases like smallpox affect Indians so badly? Indians were less robust than Europeans. Europeans deliberately infected Indians. Indians had no immunity to European diseases.