1835 — Nov-Spring 1838 (esp.), Smallpox, Sitka, Gulf of AK, Kodiak, Aleutian Isl. natives, AK-13,105

lornajarrettblanchard November 1, 1835

— 50% of native population. US Treasury Dept. Seal and Salmon Fisheries (V. IV), 1898, 231

–13,105 Boyd. The Coming of the Spirit of Pestilence. 1999, p. 227. (See Boyd in narrative below.)

–11,550 Nov 1835-Spring 1838. Gibson 1982-83, p. 71.[1]

–<3,000 1837-1838. US Dept. of Treasury. Seal and Salmon Fisheries (Vol. IV), 1898, p. 224.[2]

— 1,707 Blanchard tally from locality breakouts below.[3]

— 400 Sitka natives (1836). (Gottehrer 2000, p. 84.)

— <400 Tlingits in one village near Sitka, winter of 1835-1836. (Gibson 1982-83, p. 68.)

— 400 Tlingits in village of Sitka, three months late 1836 to early 1837. (Treasury, p. 344)

— 161 Tlingits (mostly) in Sitka, most in Dec 1835 and Jan 1836. (Gibson 1982-83, p. 68.)

— ? “…almost half…the residents of…Tlingit settlement at Sitka…perished.” (Gibson, 68)

— 1 Russian, Sitka, winter of 1835-1836. (Gibson 1982-83, p. 68.)

— ? 1836. Khutsnov strait Tlingits “were devastated.” (Gibson 1982-83, p. 68.)

— ? Dec 1836-May 1837. 25% of Sitka Tlingits. (Gibson 1982-83, p. 68.)

— ? Dec 1836-May 1837. 25% of Stikine Tlingits. (Gibson 1982-83, p. 68.)

— ? Dec 1836-May 1837. >25% natives at Chilkat villages. (Gibson 1982-83, p. 68.)

— ? Dec 1836-May 1837. >25% natives at Kaigani villages. (Gibson 1982-83, p. 68.)

— ? Dec 1836-May 1837. >25% natives at Keku villages. (Gibson 1982-83, p. 68.)

— ? Dec 1836-May 1837. >25% natives at Tongass villages. (Gibson 1982-83, p. 68.)

— ? Dec 1836-May 1837. >25% natives at “other” villages. (Gibson 1982-83, p. 68.)

— ? 1836 esp., ~⅓ Tsimshians along the southern Alaska coast. (Gibson 1982-83, p68.)

— ? 1836 especially. >⅓Haidas along the southern Alaska coast. (Gibson 1982-83, p. 68.)

— 265 Mid-July-mid-Oct, 1837. Kodiak Island.[4] (Gibson 1982-83, p. 70.)

— 736 Kodiak Island. (US Treasury Dept. Seal and Salmon Fisheries (V. IV), 1898, p. 344.)

— 27 Natives on Alaska Peninsula.[5] (Gibson 1982-83, p. 70; Treasury Dept. 1898, p. 344.[6])

— 24 Natives on Kenai Peninsula.[7] Apparently in early 1838. (Gibson 1982-83, p. 70.)

— ? Hinchinbrook Island,[8] early 1838. (Gibson 1982-83, p. 70.)

— 83 Unalaska District and other Fox Islands, 1838.[9] (Gibson 1982-83, pp. 70-71.)

— 130 Unalaska. (US Treasury Dept. Seal and Salmon Fisheries (V. IV), 1898, p. 344.)

— >200 Trading posts on Cook Inlet, Prince William Sound, Bristol Bay. (Treasury, 345-46.)

Narrative Information

Boyd: At this point we may summarize the data on mortality from the 1836 smallpox epidemic in the north [AK]. The adjusted figures, from Hudson’s Bay population estimates and censuses, and coordinate ethnohistorical data are given in the following table.

Pre-epidemic Post-epidemic Numerical Percentage

Population Population Loss Loss

Tlingit 9,880 7,255 2,625 27

Nisǥa’a 2,423 1,625 808 33

Tsimshian 4,239 2,826 1,413 33

Haida[10] 9,490 6,327 3,163 33

Haisla 825 409 416 50

North Heiltsuk[11] 875 579 296 34

Nuxalk 1,940 1,056[12] 884 46

Total 29,672 20,067 9,605[13] 32 [p. 227]

[Chugach, Tanaina, Koniag, Aleut AK coastal natives: ~3,500]

[Blanchard Grand Total from Boyd: 13,105]

Gibson: “The impact on the Indians of the Northwest Coast in the last half of the 1830s was… drastic. The Tlingits seem to have been the initial victims, very likely contracting the disease from an American or British trading vessel (their usual customers) somewhere in the ‘straits,’ the labyrinth of channels separating the islands of the Alexander Archipelago, in the fall of 1835.[14]…. [p. 66]

“…the disease was brought to Sitka at the end of November 1835 by Tlingits from the mainland panhandle; it ended at the colonial capital and among the Tlingits in the spring of 1838.[15] During this interval it spread as far south as Principe Channel and as far north as Norton Sound, including the Aleutian Islands, Kodiak Island, the Alexander Archipelago and the Queen Charlotte Islands.[16]…. [p. 67]

“During the winter the daily number of sick at the capital ranged from seventy to eighty. Russians were only mildly affected; they became ill for a short time only, and but one died. Tlingits and Kodiaks suffered severely and créoles to a lesser extent. Up to 400 Tlingits died in one village near Sitka and almost half of the residents of the Tlingit settlement at Sitka itself perished. Not all of the Indians were stricken equally, however. The Stikine Tlingits were but slightly affected, whereas villages in the ‘straits’ like Khutsnov were devastated. In March 1836

the epidemic weakened (as the Indians dispersed to their spring fishing and hunting grounds) and in mid-April it ceased, at least among company employees. There had been 161 deaths at Sitka, mostly in December and January and presumably virtually all natives.[17]

“….Predictably, in late December smallpox flared anew and lasted until mid-May 1837. This time the fatality rate among the Stikine and Sitka Tlingits was 25 percent, and no less at Kaigani, Tongass, Chilkat, Keku and other Indian villages. Again the disease ebbed in the summer and surged in the fall… [p. 68]

“Through trading, warring, politicking and socializing, smallpox spread ‘with fearful rapidity’ from the Tlingits southward to the Tsimshians[18] and Haidas.[19] It reached the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Fort Simpson [Canada’s Northwest Territory] (est. 1831) at the mouth of Portland Inlet at the end of September 1836. By the middle of October the incidence of the disease was ‘rather alarming.’ A “great number” of lower Skeena River Tsimshians were dying at the beginning of November, and a month later the lower Nass River Tsimshians were stricken. Fort Simpson’s Chief Trader John Work reported that ‘it spread rapidly and committed dreadful ravages among the Natives during the fall and winter and did not abate till the spring.’ Smallpox disappeared in August 1837 after having, according to the Nass Tsimshians, ‘extended as far to the interior as they usually go to trade.’….The fatality rate among the Tsimshians was nearly one-third, and among the Tsimshians was nearly one-third, and among the Haidas it may have been even higher.[20] …. [p. 69]

“…smallpox [spread] to Kodiak…mid-July 1837…on the Alaska Peninsula (…twenty-seven natives died)….smallpox spread suddenly and swiftly throughout the Kodiak District. It was still raging in the fall. From mid-July to mid-October 265 natives died, and by the end of the year the toll reached 738….By the spring of 1838 the epidemic had faded…[but] took twenty-four lives that spring [on the Kenai Peninsula] and Hinchinbrook Island.[21]

“…smallpox [then spread] to the Unalaska District…. [p. 70] In the summer of 1838… [a Russian doctor] was sent to Unalaska to stem the disease, which had already killed some Aleuts, principally in the western part of the district. He spent four months there, all but one of them in travel by kayak among the two-dozen Aleut villages scattered throughout the Fox Islands. He vaccinated 1,086 of the district’s 1,400 inhabitants. Thanks to his diligence, the epidemic remained ‘mild.’ There were only…eighty-three [deaths] from smallpox…[notes that only five died after vaccination]…. [pp. 70-71.]

“The epidemic claimed very few Euro American lives but the native toll was high….the form of the 1835-1838 disease was severe….the Tlingits, Tsimshians and Haidas…probably numbered up to 30,000 at the outset of the epidemic…the Kodiaks and Aleuts…totaled fewer than 5,000. Directly and indirectly about one-third of the Indians died of smallpox, and in some places that fatality rate reached 75 percent and some groups were even exterminated.[22] The Tlingits may have been hardest hit. Their population plummeted from 10,000 in 1835 to 6,000 in 1840 — a mortality of 40 percent.[23] They never fully recovered from this blow….

“Because they refused vaccination, the Kodiak Eskimos suffered as much as the Indians. Of Kodiak Island’s 2,200 natives, 736 died — a mortality of one-third.[24]….” [pp. 71-72] (Gibson, James R. “Smallpox on the Northwest Coast, 1835-1838.” BC Studies, No. 56, Winter 1982-83, pp. 61-81.)

Gottehrer: “1836. Smallpox appeared at Sitka where 400 Natives died. The smallpox spread to other villages and reportedly wiped out many settlements in the Yakutat-Dry Bay area. The epidemic died out in 1840. Because the Kodiak Island Native settlements had also been decimated by the epidemic, in 1844 the Russian-American Company consolidated the 65 inhabited places into seven settlements.” (Gottehrer 2000, p. 84.)

US Dept. of the Treasury: “….the smallpox epidemic…appeared in the Russian colonies in 1837.[25] During the first two years the loss was nearly 3,000, and the population gradually decreased from 11,022 in 1837, reaching its lowest point, 7,224 in 1845. During the second year of the epidemic the mortality was greatest, over 2,000; but it must be remembered that these figures relate only to those natives under the immediate control of the company and accessible to medical treatment and vaccination. If the mortality in these favored sections was 20 per cent, it is safe to assume that in the remote regions of the north, in the densely people districts of the Yukon, Kuskokvim, and Bristol Bay, it must have been fully 50 per cent, if not more. This assumption is borne out fully by the evidence of native tradition, and ruins of depopulated and abandoned villages still in existence. The abandoned village sites in the Yukon and Kuskokvim valleys far outnumber the settlements now inhabited, and whole populous villages were converted into cemeteries by the burial of the dead in their own dwellings. Such funeral towns are still frequently met with in the whole coast region of Alaska west of Mount St. Elias. Among the Thlinket tribes, who practice cremation, the losses must have been equally great, but with them no traces of the universal calamity of nearly half a century ago remain, except in the blind and pockmarked persons of the few aged of both sexes.” (US Dept. of Treasury. Seal and Salmon Fisheries…(V. IV). Special Agent Petroff report. 1898, pp. 224-225.)

US Dept. of the Treasury: “In addition to the troubles for which the natives themselves are responsible, dreadful consequences arose from the introduction of smallpox, through Russian intercourse, first in 1838 and 1839.[26] This disease swept like wildfire up from its initial point at the confines of the southern limits of the Alexander Archipelago over the whole length of the Aleutian chain, Cooks Inlet, Bristol Bay, and Kuskokvim, fading out in the north, until entirely checked by the Arctic cold. It actually carried in its grim grasp one half of the whole population of Alaska to an abrupt and violent death. In certain places it swept out the entire population, being exceedingly virulent among the Thlinket of the Alexander Archipelago….” (US Dept. of Treasury. Seal and Salmon Fisheries…, 1898, p. 231.[27])

US Dept. of the Treasury: “One of the most remarkable events that occurred under Kuprianof’s administration of the Russian possessions[28] was the appearance of a smallpox epidemic extending from 1836 to 1840, inclusive. The disease first made its appearance in Sitka, November, 1836,[29] and though at the time the company had a resident physician, Dr. Blaschke, at that place, all efforts to stay its ravages were in vain. Old and middle-aged people suffered most, attacks in their cases proving nearly always fatal, but among children the mortality was less. The creoles,[30] owing, perhaps, to their more clearly mode of life, suffered in a minor degree, but the Kolosh,[31] living in filth and misery, were swept away by whole families, and inside of three months 400 deaths occurred in the native village of Sitka alone. Only one Russian was attacked during that time, and he recovered. In March, 1837, the disease began to die out. Among the Alexander Archipelago the mortality was also very great. As soon as navigation opened a station surgeon, Valsky, with three experienced assistants, was dispatched to the district of Kodiak with order to vaccinate the people, but the precaution came too late, the disease having been evidently carried to Kodiak on the same ship which brought the medical assistants. On the island of Kodiak 736 persons died. On the peninsula of Aliaska[32] one of the assistant surgeons vaccinated 243 persons, and in that vicinity only 27 succumbed to the disease.

“Dr. Blaschke was dispatched to Unalaska, where he vaccinated 1,086 natives, and here only 130 died. In the vicinity of the trading posts on Cooks Inlet, Prince William Sound, and Bristol Bay the natives refused to submit to vaccination, the consequence being that 550 persons were attacked by the disease, of whom over 200 died. The last cases of smallpox in any portion of the Russian colonies were reported in 1840.” (US Dept. of Treasury. Seal and Salmon Fisheries…, Chapter IV — “Historical Sketch of Alaska.” 1898, pp. 344-345.)

Sources

Boyd, Robert Thomas. The Coming of the Spirit of Pestilence: Introduced Infectious Diseases and Population Decline among Northwest Coast Indians, 1774-1874. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1999, 403 pages. Partially digitized by Google. Accessed 8-28-2017 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=jnWMCaFcuM4C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Gibson, James R. “Smallpox on the Northwest Coast, 1835-1838.” BC Studies (The British Columbian Quarterly), No. 56, Winter 1982-83, pp. 61-81. Accessed 8-26-2017 at: http://ojs.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bcstudies/article/viewFile/1140/1184

Gottehrer, Dean M. The Associated Press Stylebook for Alaska (Revised and 2^nd edition). Fairbanks, Alaska: Epicenter Press, 2000. Partially digitized by Google at: http://books.google.com/books?id=O53zwdFYTGEC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

United States Department of the Treasury (David Starr Jordan). Seal and Salmon Fisheries and General Resources of Alaska (Vol. IV of 4). Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1898. Google digitized. Accessed 8-27-2017 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=kg44AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

[1] This is our interpretation of Gibson based on his statement that the Tlingits, Tsimshians and Haidas “probably numbered up to 30,000 at the outset of the epidemic, and…the Kodiaks and Aleuts…totaled fewer than 5,000 [and that “directly and indirectly about one-third of the Indians died of smallpox.” We added 30,000 and 5,000 and then took 35% to derive 11,550.

[2] See “Narrative Information” section below for Treasury explanation as to why this is a significant underestimation.

[3] Of course our number only reflects the numbers provided by Gibson for specific places at specific times. For many groups he does not provide a number but notes that from 25% to 33% died.

[4] Off south-central Alaska coast to the east of Alaska Peninsula.

[5] The southern Alaska Peninsula that extends southwest from mainland Alaska to beginning of Aleutian Islands.

[6] The Treasury Dept., though notes that “only 27 succumbed” on “the peninsula of Aliaska.”

[7] Just South of Anchorage, extending southwest into the Gulf of Alaska, with Cook Inlet to the west.

[8] Off southern coast of Alaska to the east of the Kenai Peninsula and Montague Island.

[9] We are assuming that the “Unalaska District” is principally Unalaska Island, which is in the Aleutian Islands train.

[10] Boyd note: “Evidence for inclusion of Haida is limited. The HBC’s figure of one-third mortality from the Fort Simpson area has been extended to the Queen Charlottes.”

[11] Boyd note: “Includes the Sabassas Tsimshian Kitasoo and the Heiltsuk Haihais and Istitoch.”

[12] Boyd note: “Tolmie’s 1856 estimate has been increased to allow for 10% measles mortality in 1848.”

[13] Boyd note: “Including statistics for the remainder of the peoples of Alaska’s Pacific coast (Chugach, Tanaina, Honiag, and Aleut) from Fedorova 1973: 276-77 adds nearly 3,500 more deaths.”

[14] Gibson: “See T. Aidan Cockburn, ‘Infectious Diseases in Ancient Populations,’ Current Anthropology 12 (1971): 45-62; Geoffrey Marks and William K. Beatty, Epidemics (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1976); William H. McNeill, Plagues and Peoples (Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1976); Howard N. Simpson, ‘The Impact of Disease on American History,’ The New England Journal of Medicine 250 (1954) : 679-87.”

[15] Cites: United States National Archives [USNA], File Microcopies of Records in the National Archives: No. 11, ‘Record of the Russian-American Company 1802-1867: Correspondence of Governors General,’ roll 38, pp. 73v., 80v., roll 40, pp. 222-222v., 248v., 267.”

[16] Cites: Manitoba, Provincial Archives, Hudson’s Bay Company Archives [HBCA], B.223/c1, p. 113v; Leda Chase Milan, “Ethnohistory of Disease and Medical Care among the Aleuts,” Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska 16 (1974) : 20.

[17] Gibson: “USNA, roll 37, p. 422v., roll 38, pp. 74, 81, 103v-104, roll 40, pp. 265v-267v., roll 41, pp. 194v.-195.”

[18] Natives of Pacific Northwest Coast, mostly in coastal British Columbia, but up into southern Alaska as well.

[19] Natives of Pacific Northwest Coast, near coast of southeastern Alaska and northwest British Columbia.

[20] Gibson cites: “BCPA, Work to Ermatinger, Feb. 15, 1837; HBCA, B.201/a/3, pp. 75, 76v., 80, 101, B.223/c/1, pp. 113-113v.; E. E. Rich, ed., The Letters of John McLoughlin, from Fort Vancouver to the Governor and Committee, First Series, 1825-38 (London: Hudson’s Bay Record Society, 1941), p. 271.”

[21] Cites: “Tikhmenev, History, 1 : 199; USNA, roll 39, pp. 235v.-236, 450v., roll 40, pp. 222v., 248v.-250v., roll 41, 186v.”

[22] Cites: Thomas E. Jessett, ed., Reports and Letters of Herbert Beaver 1836-1838 (Portland: Champoeg Press, 1959), p. 88; Rich, Letters, p. 271; USNA, roll 43, pp. 333-333v. Bancroft’s figure of from 50 to 60 percent is too high (Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of Alaska 1730-1885 {Darien, Conn.: Hafner Publishing Co., 1970}, p. 560).”

[23] Cites: “I. Veniaminov, Zapiski ob ostravakh Unalashkinskavo otdela [Notes on the Islands of the Unalaska District] (St. Petersburg: Rossiisko-Amerikanskaya kompaniya, 1840), 3: 29.”

[24] Cites: “{Sturdza}, Pamyatnik, p. 223; Tikhmenev, History, 1 : 198.”

[25] We choose to follow well-documented Gibson who reports first outbreaks in Nov 1835.

[26] Again, we choose to follow Gibson. There is no doubt that 1836 was a very fatal year.

[27] This is from the Report in the Tenth Census. Report on the Population, Industries, and Resources of Alaska. By Special Agent Ivan Petroff, in Treasury Dept. Seal and Salmon Fisheries…

[28] Ivan Antonovich Kuprianof, Governor of Russian America 1835-1840. (Essig, Edward Oliver. “The Russian Settlement at Ross.” In Fort Ross: California Outpost of Russian Alaska, 1812-1841 (Richard A Pierce, ed.). Kingston, Ontario, Canada: Limestone Press, 1991, p. 101.)

[29] Gibson has it as Nov 1835.

[30] Offspring of Russian and native parents.

[31] Another name for The Tlingit. (Indians.org. “A history and description of the Tlingit Indians of Alaska.” 2017.)

[32] Alaska Peninsula? Alyeska is today a ski resort southeast of Anchorage and northwest of Portage and Whittier. Given its elevation, and the fact that it is not a peninsula, it seems that what is meant is the Alaska Peninsula which runs southeast from mainland and ends where Aleutian Islands begin.