1837 — Smallpox, California Native Americans 2,000-10,000

–2,000-10,000  Blanchard estimate based on narratives below.[1]

–2,000-300,000.  Cook. The Conflict Between the California Indian and White…, 1976, 213-14.

Narrative Information

“The second serious epidemic [which Cook puts as 1833 and others at 1829-34] was one of smallpox which occurred in 1837, the so-called ‘Miramontes epidemic.’  Since the details of this visitation have been given elsewhere,[2] it will be necessary here to consider only the extent and losses involved. Coming from Fort Ross, the smallpox first attacked Sonoma and then spread north and east so as to include, according to Cerruti, the valleys of Sonoma, Petaluma, Santa Rosa, Russian River, Clear Lake, Suisun, and the Sacramento ‘as far as the slopes of Mount Shasta.’[3] In this region the Indians were ‘almost exterminated.’  He puts the dead at 100,000.  Alvarado says 200,000 to 300,000 and Fernandez 100,000. All these are obviously wild guesses.  A more conservative statement was made by Vallejo, who said that ‘hundreds’ were dying in his district.[4]

“Other evidence is derived from certain survivors. The pioneer John Walker of Sebastopol, Sonoma County, told the county historian, Samuel Cassiday, that George C. Yount pointed out to him in 1846 an Indian girl who was the ‘sole survivor’ of her tribe during the epidemic.[5] Another Indian stated that in his tribe, also on the Russian River, the death rate was 10 to 20 per day during the peak of the sickness, and that in some tribes ‘nearly all’ died. In Sonoma, General Vallejo’s private company of Indian auxiliaries was so decimated as to be utterly useless from the military standpoint.

“The focus of this epidemic seems to have been in the territory of the Pomo and Wappo, with an extension among the Sacramento Valley Wintun. (Cerruti’s reference to Mount Shasta may be dismissed as rhetoric.) If several villages (‘tribes’) were actually annihilated and if Vallejo was somewhere near the truth in his reference to the death of ‘hundreds,’ we may suppose the casualties to have been in the vicinity of 1,000 among the Indians close to the Sonoma Valley and the Russian River Valley. It is probably safe to add another thousand to account for the Clear Lake region and the western side of the Sacramento Valley. The total of 2,000, although vastly less than the contemporary guesses, would still constitute a serious blow to the Indian population.” (Cook, Sherburne Friend. The Conflict Between the California Indian and White Civilization, Part 4, 1976, pp. 213-214.)

Boyd: “In 1974 Sherburne Cook stated ‘the mortality may have reached 10,000’ (1978: 92[6]).” (Boyd, Robert Thomas. The Coming of the Spirit of Pestilence: Introduced Infectious Diseases and Population Decline among Northwest Coast Indians, 1774-1874. University of Washington Press, 1999, p. 131.)

Sources

Boyd, Robert Thomas. The Coming of the Spirit of Pestilence: Introduced Infectious Diseases and Population Decline among Northwest Coast Indians, 1774-1874. University of Washington Press, 1999, 403 pages. Google digitized; accessed 1-5-2015 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=P_FdUPbmwCgC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Cook, Sherburne Friend. The Conflict Between the California Indian and White Civilization, Part 4, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1976. Partially Google digitized at: http://books.google.com/books?id=AXgmN-PIrywC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

[1] Two thousand deaths is at the low end of the range of estimates cited by Cook. The high end is 200,000-300,000,  which he considers “wild guesses.” Boyd points out, though, that in a 1978 book, Cook writes that “the morality may have reached 10,000.” Thus we choose the range 2,000-10,000.

[2] References himself:  “S.F. Cook, ‘Smallpox in Spanish and Mexican California, 1770-1845,” Bulletin of the History of  Medicine, Vol. 7, pp. 183-187.

[3] Cites:  E. Cerruti, “Establecimientos Rusos en California,’ MS, 1877, p. 8.

[4] Cites: M. G. Vallejo to comandante of San Diego, May 23, 1838, Dept. St. Pap., 4:205.

[5] Writes:  “Set forth in Cassiday’s book, History of Sonoma County (1888). The same material is also quoted by E. L. Finley, History of Sonoma County (1937), pp. 61 and 244.

[6] Probably a reference to Sherburne F. Cook. “Historical demography.” In Robert F. Heizer (ed.) Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 8: California. Smithsonian Institution and Government Printer, Washington, DC, 1978.