1837-38 — Smallpox, Upper Mid-West Native Tribes, esp. Dakotas, MT –10,000->17,000

Blanchard on estimated death toll range.*

— >17,000 Wikipedia. “1blackfeet
837 Great Plains smallpox epidemic.” 2-22-2021 edit, accessed 3-9-2021.
— ~14,280 Blanchard count of specific numbers provided below.
— 10,000 U.S. NLM. “1837-40: Smallpox, whooping cough strike the Great Plains.”
–Tens of Thousands. Dollar. “High Plains Smallpox Epidemic of 1837-38.” 1997, p.15.*
~½ Arikara (ND/SD) Hodge, Adam. Vectors of Colonialism… Smallpox… 2009, 191.
— 800 Assiniboin. Dollar. “High Plains Smallpox Epidemic of 1837-38.” 1997, 24
— 6,000 Blackfeet Crosby, Alfred. “Virgin-Soil Epidemics as a Factor in the…” 1992
— 4,000 “ Kohn. Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence… 2001.
— 700 “ Dollar. “High Plains Smallpox Epidemic of 1837-38.” 1997, 24.
— ~2/3 “ Hodge, Adam. Vectors of Colonialism… Smallpox… 2009, 191.
— ~½ Hidatsas Hodge, Adam. Vectors of Colonialism… Smallpox… 2009, 191.
— 1,679 Mandan (ND/SD) Chappell. “History…MO Riv.,” Trans…KS His Soc 1905, 291.
–~1,255 “ Crosby, A. “Virgin-Soil Epidemics as a Factor in the…” 1992.
— 800 “ Dollar. “High Plains Smallpox Epidemic of 1837-38.” 1997, 32.
— 300 Omaha Thornton R. American Indian Holocaust and Survival. 1990.
— 5,500 Pawnee Chappell. “History…MO Riv.,” Trans…KS His Soc 1905, 291.
—<2,500 “ Dollar. “High Plains Smallpox Epidemic of 1837-38.” 1997, 24. -- >1 Steamer St. Peter Chappell. “History…MO Riv.,” Trans…KS His Soc 1905, 291.

* Blanchard on estimated death toll range. We do not use “tens of thousands” of deaths as explained in our note on the Dollar estimate. Instead we rely on actual numbers provided by two cited sources – 10,000 and over 17,000 – and convert these into a range.

*Dollar on “tens of thousands” of deaths. One might think the minimum number of deaths to qualify for a description of “tens of thousands” would be twenty thousand – two tens. However, if we were to guestimate 20,000 deaths this could be construed as making up a number.

Narrative Information

Chappell: “The most unfortunate trip that was ever made by a steamboat up the river [Missouri], and the most far-reaching in its results and in the sacrifice of human life, was that of the St. Peter. She was a single-engine boat, built by Pierre Chouteau and Peter Sarpy for the fur trade. She left St. Louis in the spring of 1837, bound for the mountains, loaded with supplies for the different posts. Her deck was composed of negroes, and before she arrived at S. Joseph, then call the ‘Blacksnake Hills,’ the smallpox had broken out among them, and one who had died was buried there. The contagion immediately extended to other members of the crew, and the danger of communicating the disease to the Indians, who were then numerous along the river, became apparent. Runners were sent forward to give the alarm and warn them to keep away from the banks; but notwithstanding this precaution the terrible contagion spread, and was communicated to every tribe east of the Rocky Mountains. The fatality, as the Indians knew no way to treat the disease, was appalling, and among some tribes amounted to annihilation. In the case of the Mandans, a tribe then seated near where Bismarck, N. Dak., is now located, a population of 1700 was reduced to 31. Among the Pawnees, who were then on the Platte, the death rate was so great that, according to the official report made to the government, they were reduced, within a year, from 10,000 to 4500 – one-half the tribe had died. Utter dismay pervaded all the tribes, and they fled from the pestilence in every direction, leaving the bodies of their dead to be devoured by the wolves.” (Chappell, Phil E. “A History of the Missouri River,” Trans…KS His Soc 1905, 291.)

Dollar: “On Friday, July 14, 1837, a young Mandan Indian died of smallpox at Fort Clark, a major fur trading post along the Upper Missouri River. That individual’s death signaled the early stages of one of the most virulent, destructive, and disruptive epidemics known on the American continent. Before the disease burned out, the total death rate soared well into the tens of thousands, the Mandan tribal population dropped below the genetic survival threshold, the balance of power among Indian tribes in the upper West shifted as entire sub-bands disappeared, social structures and customs altered to meet tribal survival needs, and the widespread Upper Missouri trade system was disrupted.

“In the aftermath many Indian groups whose hunter class had been too severely decimated to maintain food-obtaining capabilities increased their dependence on trade goods and government annuities. Others, more nomadic and less damaged by the disease, moved farther westward into areas where game still could be procured. This polarization contributed to the conditions that led to a quarter-century of Indian wars.” (Dollar 1997, p. 15)

“In his entry for Friday, July 14, 1837, twenty-five days after the St. Peter’s first docked at Fort Clark and seventeen days after its return, Chardon first noted smallpox in the Mandan village. On that day, “a young Mandan” died, and Chardon forebodingly noted that “several others has caught it.”

“The first lightning bolt of the storm had struck. The disease unleashed became a violence staggering to the imagination, even from the cushioning vantage point of intervening years.

“The apocalypse strode through the Indian villages, and in its path horror ran rampant. The old ones, the chiefs, the children all broke out in stinging, hideous, putrid sores….Six one day, four the next, seven more the next. The number quickly grew to eight and ten each day, then twelve, and fifteen, and finally, “… I Keep no a/c of the dead, as they die so fast it is impossible -.” A madness swirled through the villages as the primitive mind responded to what could not be comprehended. Mothers killed their children, fathers abandoned their sons, friends butchered each other–anything to escape. And everywhere were the stench of the disease and the bloated bodies of the dead.

“Before the scourge ended, one Indian tribe was wiped out and two others barely survived.” (p29) (Dollar, Clyde D. “The High Plains Smallpox Epidemic of 1837-38.” The Western Historical Quarterly, Vol. 8, No. 1, January 1997, pp. 15-38.)

Hodge: “Overall, the 1837-38 epidemic killed off one half of the northern plains native population.” (Hodge, Adam R. Vectors of Colonialism: The Smallpox Epidemic of 1780-82 and Northern Great Plains Indian Life. May 2009, p. 191.)

Kohn: “Mandan Indian Smallpox Epidemic of 1837.”
“Grave epidemic of smallpox that nearly wiped out the Mandan Indian tribe during three months in 1837. White Europeans carried the variola virus into what is now south and central North Dakota, where the Manda lived along the Heart and Knife rivers (tributaries of the upper Missouri) in close association with the Hidatsa (or Gros Ventre) and Arikara Indians, two tribes also dwelling in and near the region….

“In June 1837 the highly contagious smallpox disease was transmitted to the Mandan from infected passengers and traders aboard an American Fur Company steamboat traveling westward up the Missouri River from St. Louis. Members of the Hidatsa and Arikara tribes were also infected at the same time. Nearly all the Indians who were infected and survived the smallpox epidemic were disfigured; many victims were blinded. According to the American artist and traveler George Catlin (1796-1872), who painted these North American Indians of the Plains, his friend the Mandan chief Ma-to-toh-pa (also called ‘The Four Bears’) starved himself to death after watching his wives and children die of smallpox. However, another source claims that the Manda chief died of the disease himself on July 30, 1837, after making a speech to his people concerning his disdain over having to die with his face so ‘rotten’ (a deeply pockmarked face, characteristic of smallpox).

“At the close of the 1837 epidemic in September, the Mandan and Hidatsa groups were so reduced in number that they were forced to amalgamate at Like-A-Fishhook village. Some claim that only 27 Mandan were left; others say there were 100 to 150 survivors….” (Kohn 2001, 217)

ndstudies.gov (North Dakota Studies): “….When smallpox struck the northern Great Plains in 1837, tribes south of the Mandan villages were fairly well protected [due to vaccination efforts]. The Mandans, Hidatsas, and Arikaras and other tribes to the north and west suffered horrifying losses from the epidemic. In 1838, Superintendent of Indian Affairs William Clark requested that vaccines be taken to the Upper Missouri and $5,000 was added to the program. The vaccine provided some protection, but vaccination came too late for thousands of Indian men, women, and children.” (ndstudies.gov. North Dakota People Living on the Land. “Lesson 4: Alliances And Conflicts. Topic 1: Smallpox Epidemics (1781, 1837, 1851). Section 2: Smallpox Among Indian Tribes.”)

U.S. NLM. “1837-40: Smallpox, whooping cough strike the Great Plains.”
“A smallpox epidemic spreads through Native communities in the West, killing 10,000 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….”

Sources

Chappell, Phil E. “A History of the Missouri River.” Transactions of the Kansas State Historical Society, 1905-1906 (Vol. IX). Topeka: State Printing Office, 1906. Accessed at: http://books.google.com/books?id=2dw7AAAAIAAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s

Crosby, Alfred W. Jr. “Virgin-Soil Epidemics as a Factor in the Aboriginal Depopulation in America.” Chapter 2 in: Nichols, Roger L (Ed.). The American Indian: Past and Present. Verlag fur die Deutsche Wirtschaft AG, 1992, 312 pages. Digitized by Google. Accessed at: http://books.google.com/books?id=SVcpfdAZ3rEC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Dollar, Clyde D. “The High Plains Smallpox Epidemic of 1837-38.” The Western Historical Quarterly, Vol. 8, No. 1, January 1997, pp. 15-

Hodge, Adam R. Vectors of Colonialism: The Smallpox Epidemic of 1780-82 and Northern Great Plains Indian Life (A thesis submitted to Kent State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts). May 2009. Accessed 9-18-2012 at: http://etd.ohiolink.edu/send-pdf.cgi/Hodge%20Adam%20R.pdf?kent1239393701

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

ndstudies.gov. North Dakota People Living on the Land. “Lesson 4: Alliances And Conflicts. Topic 1: Smallpox Epidemics (1781, 1837, 1851). Section 2: Smallpox Among Indian Tribes.”) Accessed 3-9-2021 at: https://www.ndstudies.gov/gr8/content/unit-ii-time-transformation-1201-1860/lesson-4-alliances-and-conflicts/topic-1-smallpox-epidemics-1781-1837-1851/section-2-smallpox-among-indian-tribes

Thornton, Russell. American Indian Holocaust and Survival: A Population History Since 1492. University of Oklahoma Press, 1990, 292 pages. Partially Google digitized at: http://books.google.com/books?id=9iQYSQ9y60MC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

United States National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health & Human Services. Native Voices. Native Peoples’ Concepts of Health and Illness. “1837-40: Smallpox, whooping cough strike the Great Plains.” Bethesda, MD. NLM. Accessed 3-9-2021 at: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/nativevoices/timeline/292.html