Smallpox epidemic kills 15,000 Native American Indians

Historical Context Note

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.6: Indigenous Writing and Culture of North America - United States.
Vol. editors: Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Sarah Henzi (Simon Fraser University), Padraig Kirwan (Goldsmiths College, University of London), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University)

Domains

Plague - Virological or Bacteriological Epidemic

Dates

Date of occurrence 1837

Places

United States (Location)

Cultural Identities

First Nations/Indigenous US-American

Resources

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Between 1837 and 1838 a smallpox epidemic devastated the people of the Great Plains. The likely source was an infected deckhand on board an American Fur Company steamboat, the S.S.

St. Peter

, which was travelling up the Missouri River.

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