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Indians 201: Smallpox on the upper Missouri in 1837 [1]
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Date: 2022-12-13
Smallpox
First, a couple of notes about smallpox. In his book The Body: A Guide for Occupants, writer Bill Bryson reports:
“Smallpox is almost certainly the most devasting disease in the history of humankind. It infected nearly everyone who was exposed to it and killed about 30 percent of victims.”
Smallpox exists in three forms: (1) Variolamajor, the most virulent form of the disease; (2) Variola minor, a comparatively mild form; and (3) Variola vaccinae, a disease also known as cowpox which is found in cattle. In his book Disease in History, Frederick Cartwright writes:
“An attack of any one of these forms will protect, at least temporarily, against the other two; this is the basis of vaccination.”
Children are more likely to survive smallpox than are teenagers and adults. In urban and settled populations, such as those found in Europe, smallpox was a childhood disease which claimed the lives of about ten percent of the children. Having survived smallpox, children then grew into adulthood with some immunity to the disease.
A virus is a simple submicroscopic infectious agent that can reproduce only in living cells. The smallpox virus is a bit of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid encased in a protein). In his book Rotting Face: Smallpox and the American Indian, R. G. Robertson writes:
“The smallpox virus initially goes after cells in the mucous membrane of the human lung, then spreads to cells in the body’s other organs. After locating a suitable cell, the virus pierces the cell membrane and injects its own genetic code.”
With the smallpox genetic code, the cell manufactures more smallpox viruses. These viruses then seek out more cells to infect which leads to the eventual death of the host. R. G. Robertson writes:
“The incubation period from the time a person becomes infected until the first symptoms appear varies from eight to fourteen days, with twelve being most common. Once the virus completes its incubation, the onset of the disease is sudden, and its effects are cataclysmic.”
Smallpox typically enters the body through the respiratory tract. When an infected person breathes, coughs, or sneezes, smallpox viruses are transmitted into the air where someone else can breathe them in. In addition to being spread by living people who are infected, smallpox is also spread by clothing, bedding, and other items which have been in contact with an infected person. R. G. Robertson writes:
“In a dry state, the virus can maintain its potency outside the human body for as long as two years. Corpses of those who have died from smallpox are still infectious.”
Prior to the European invasion, American Indians had relatively few diseases. In his book Their Numbers Become Thinned: Native American Population Dynamics in Eastern North America, Henry Dobyns puts it this way:
“The near-absence of lethal pathogens in the aboriginal New World allowed the native people to live in almost a paradise of well-being that contrasted with their historic purgatory of disease. People simply did not very often die from illnesses prior to the Columbian Exchange.”
Smallpox, like many other European diseases, is associated with domestic animals and because Indians lacked domesticated animals, they also lacked these diseases. When they first encountered smallpox pandemics, American Indians did not have any cultural healing patterns to reduce the severity of the disease. One of the primary ways of dealing with disease was the sweat bath which actually increased Indian mortality from febrile diseases such as smallpox.
It was not uncommon for Native people to encounter the deadly European diseases long before they encountered European people. For thousands of years, Native American trade routes interconnected the many diverse cultures on this continent. The new European diseases simply followed these trade routes, being carried by both the traders and their goods. R. G. Robertson writes:
“In North America, trade—especially the fur trade—was the primary means by which smallpox reached the Indians of the interior. Moving inland from the Atlantic coast and northward up the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, smallpox diffused along tribal trading networks, far in advance of the first white traders. In its wake, the disease left countless dead.”
Smallpox was spread through close contact with an infected person or through contaminated blankets or clothing. Understanding how smallpox was spread and how lethal it was, some non-Indians used it as a form of biological warfare by gifting Indians contaminated blankets and clothing.
Inoculations against smallpox were developed in China in the tenth century and by the sixteenth century (Ming dynasty), inoculations were widely used. In 1700, the Royal Society in London received reports on the Chinese inoculations from Dr. Martin Lister and from Clopton Havers. In 1721, Cotton Mather inoculated hundreds of people in Massachusetts.
Vaccinations against smallpox were refined in the eighteenth century using cowpox materials (the word vaccine is based on the root word vacca meaning cow). In 1832, Congress appropriated $12,000 to vaccinate Indians against smallpox. The Secretary of War was to be in charge of the vaccinations. It was estimated that the appropriated funds would be sufficient to vaccinate two-thirds of the country’s Indians.
The Secretary of War notified the Indian agent for the upper Missouri that no tribes upstream from the Arikara were to be vaccinated. There were some who feel that the Secretary of War’s prohibition on vaccinating tribes upstream from the Arikara was intended to annihilate the Blackfoot who were harassing American fur-trapping brigades.
The 1837 Epidemic
Steamboat traffic to the fur and hide trading posts on the Upper Missouri began in 1832 with the American Fur Company’s Yellow Stone. In 1837, the American Fur Company steamboat St. Peter’s spread smallpox among the tribes of the Upper Missouri.
Near the Blacksnake Hills Trading Post, one of the steamboat’s deckhands was sick. According to R. G. Robertson:
“His fever hovered above 100 degrees. An itchy rash had spread over his cheeks and the undersides of his arms, and was now inching its way across his stomach and chest.”
Indian agent William Fulkerson felt that the man had smallpox and suggested that the man be put ashore at the trading post. The captain disagreed and felt that the man would be able to return to work shortly.
As the steamboat made its way upstream, the man’s rash turned into small, circular bumps. R. G. Robertson reports:
“Three days later, the bumps filled with a clear fluid, blotching his cheeks, arms, legs, and stomach with a rotating pattern of blisters. More blisters ulcerated his throat, making every swallow a torture.”
At Fort Bellevue (Council Bluffs, Iowa), the St. Peter’s picked up firewood and some new passengers, including three Arikara women and their children who were returning to Mitutanka village. R. G. Robertson reports:
“Within three days of the St. Peter’s leaving Fort Bellevue, the first victims infected by the black deckhand developed high fevers and aching backs.”
The Arikara women and their children also became infected.
As the St. Peter’s continued upstream, it made a short stop at the Pratt & Chouteau trading post for the Lakota. By this time, the infected deck hand had recovered and was back to work. Next, the steamer stopped at Vermillion Post, just below the confluence of the Missouri and Vermillion Rivers. R. G. Robertson reports:
“When the St. Peter’s stopped at Vermillion Post, the crew had to keep careful watch to prevent inquisitive Lakotas from sneaking aboard contracting the virus.”
Many of the people on the St. Peter’s, both crew and passengers, were infected with smallpox. According to some reports, the captain refused to quarantine those infected. The captain was more concerned about avoiding any delays in his schedule than about the possibility of spreading the disease. In his book Blackfoot Fur Trade on the Upper Missouri, John Lepley writes:
“The steamboat continued up river with no thought of the consequences. Greed overruled good judgment. At each stop the epidemic spread into the fur post and from there into the tribes that came into trade.”
At Fort Kiowa in present-day South Dakota, the St. Peter’s unloaded government annuities for the Indians. R. G. Robertson reports:
“Aware that the steamboat was bringing their government annuities, several hundred Yankton and Santee Lakotas lined the riverbank, eagerly waiting their annuities.”
By this time, the Arikara women and children were very ill, their bodies covered with sores. Smallpox spread to the Lakotas, possibly through contaminated annuity blankets or cloth, contact with the Arikaras, or contact with infected non-Indians.
At Fort Pierre Chouteau the St. Peter’s picked up a few more passengers. By this time, the smallpox-infected passengers were better, but some were still contagious.
At Fort Clark, the Arikara women and children left the St. Peter’s and returned to the village of Mitutanka. At Fort Clark, the captain decided to spend the night to allow the steamboat’s crew to have sex with the Arikara and Mandan women at Mitutanka. In this way, smallpox spread to the Hidatsas and Mandans.
The St. Peter’s final destination was Fort Union in present-day North Dakota. There were, however, more trading posts upriver from Fort Union, primarily Fort McKenzie and Fort Benton in Montana. These trading posts, however, were reached by keelboats rather than steamboats.
After the St. Peter’s had stopped at Fort Union, one of the traders had came down with smallpox. The clerk, Charles Larpenteur, understood that the disease would pose a great peril to the Assiniboine when they returned to trade in the fall. Therefore, all personnel at the post who had not had smallpox were inoculated. Using a medical book as a guide, they scraped pus from a ripened smallpox blister. They then made tiny cuts on the inoculees’ arms, dipped the tip of the lancet in the vial of pus, and rubbed a small amount of pus on the wound. Smallpox, however, still struck the Assiniboine and two-thirds died. Of the 250 lodges at Fort Union, only 30 survived.
In Montana, the trader from Fort McKenzie wondered why no Blackfoot had come to the post to trade. He set out to find his customers and encountered many buffalo, but no buffalo hunters. At Three Forks he found a Blackfoot camp of 60 lodges: there were only two old women alive. The rest had died from smallpox or from suicide to avoid smallpox. The old women had been infected by smallpox when they were younger so they were immune to the disease. In his book Mission Among the Blackfeet, Howard Harrod reports:
“Whole families were wiped out by the disease, and knowledge of family relationship were often lost to those who survived.”
The epidemic spread by the riverboat killed at least 17,000 Indian people. In North Dakota, 90 percent of the Mandan and 50 percent of the Hidatsa died. The epidemic spread west to the Blackfoot where it killed 50 percent of the southern portion of the tribe.
While traditional histories generally report that the spread of smallpox by the riverboat was unintentional, there are still many Indian people on the Northern Plains who feel that the epidemic was intentional. There are some who feel that this was another example of biological warfare against the Indians.
Indians 101/201
This series presents American Indian topics on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Indians 201 is an expansion of an earlier essay. More nineteenth century histories from this series:
Indians 201: The Bannock Indian War
Indians 201: The Cayuse Indian War
Indians 101: Nor'westers and Indians in the Columbia Plateau
Indians 101: The Astorians and the Indians
Indians 101: An imaginary war
Indians 101: America's Christian General confronts the Nez Perce
Indians 101: The California treaties of 1851-1852
Indians 201: The Chippewa Treaty of 1837
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