1592-96 – Seneca Native American Measles Epidemic, present-day western NY–100s-1000s

–100s-1000s Kohn. Encyclopedia of Plague & Pestilence (Revised). 2001, p. 298.

Narrative Information

Kohn: “Seneca Indian Measles Epidemic of 1592-96

“Evidently one of the earliest outbreaks of measles (rubeola) among Native Americans, striking the Seneca Indians’ Cameron village in what is now western New York state. Indian fear, panic, and inability to cope with the very contagious, viral disease contributed to hundreds, possibly thousands, of deaths between 1592 and 1596.

“Although there is a lack of hard evidence about specific and identifiable diseases among the Indians, historical researchers strongly support the belief that numerous measles outbreaks occurred in the entire Atlantic coastal region from Florida to the Great Lakes and New England from 1528 to 1596. Enough human skeletal evidence at the site of the Cameron village confirms the measles epidemic there of 1592-96.

“At various times during the sixteenth century Spanish ships’ crews and troops carried the measles virus (transmitted by direct contact or airborne droplets) to the West Indies and Florida, infecting the native peoples. Also, French fur traders who traveled up the St. Lawrence River might have carried the infection. However, the Seneca Indians most likely contracted measles through their trading and social interaction with the southeastern Indian tribes of what is now the United States.

“Sometime in 1592 the virus was transmitted to the Cameron village, where it was especially fatal among Seneca infants and children (who accounted for nearly half the death toll). Mortality among adults was less grave, undoubtedly because some older Seneca were immune, having apparently survived earlier exposure to the virus from 1564 to 1570.

“Further reading: Dobyns, Their Number Becomes Thinned: Native Dynamics in Eastern North America; Ramenofsky, Vectors of Death: The Archaeology of European Contact.” (Kohn. Encyclopedia of Plague & Pestilence (Revised). 2001, p. 298.)

Istúriz: “1592-1596. The Seneca Indians in what is now central New York state suffer from an epidemic of measles.” (slide 60.)

Sources
Istúriz, Raúl E., MD. Merging Infectious Reservoirs. Europe Meeting America at the Dawn of the Modera Age. Accessed 3-26-2021 at: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjCpqKqxs7vAhW0FlkFHe9TDssQFjADegQIAhAD&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.escmid.org%2Fescmid_publications%2Fescmid_elibrary%2Fmaterial%2F%3Fmid%3D1404&usg=AOvVaw0fnsH3y7d56D1AC0DCR5ni

Kohn, George Childs (Editor). Encyclopedia of Plague & Pestilence From Ancient Times to the Present (Revised). NY: Checkmark Books, 2001.