Source 1: SMALLPOX (Extract from: http://thecolumbianexchange.weebly.com/index.html) In the 1630s, a smallpox epidemic hit what is now Massachusetts (Crosby, 2007).

After this epidemic, other smallpox epidemics would hit native tribes and kill off half the population (Crosby, 2007). William Bradford wrote of the effects of smallpox and claimed that victims died and lost strength so quickly that victims could not bury their own dead let alone light a fire or fetch water (as cited in Crosby, 2007). Missionaries and traders who travelled inland in America told the same horrifying stories when the Cherokee, Catawba, Omaha, and Mandan Tribes were hit with the disease (Crosby, 2007). Smallpox was a devastating disease to native tribes in the New World, because they had never developed immunities to the disease. Europeans were not as susceptible to smallpox (Mann, 2011). Europeans saw smallpox as an illness almost every child has while growing up (Mann, 2011). Because many Europeans had once had smallpox or were at least around it, they developed immunity (Mann, 2011). This immunity helped Europeans to be uninfected when smallpox epidemics occurred in the New World (Mann, 2011) Lord Jeffrey Amherst purposely gave infected smallpox blankets to Native Americans as a way to lessen the native population during the Seven Years War (Walbert, 2008). This was the only documented case of a disease used purposely to kill a native population in the Americas (Walbert, 2008). Source 2: Extract from: The Columbian Exchange (Essay) by Alfred Crosby Smallpox was the worst and the most spectacular of the infectious diseases mowing down the Native Americans. The first recorded pandemic of that disease in British North America detonated among the Algonquin of Massachusetts in the early 1630s: William Bradford of Plymouth Plantation wrote that the victims fell down so generally of this disease as they were in the end not able to help one another, no not to make a fire nor fetch a little water to drink, nor any to bury the dead.[3] The missionaries and the traders who ventured into the American interior told the same appalling story about smallpox and the indigenes. In 1738 alone the epidemic destroyed half the Cherokee; in 1759 nearly half the Catawbas; in the first years of the next century twothirds of the Omahas and perhaps half the entire population between the Missouri River and New Mexico; in 18371838 nearly every last one of the Mandans and perhaps half the people of the high plains. European explorers encountered distinctively American illnesses such as Chagas Disease, but these did not have much effect on Old World populations. Venereal syphilis has also been called American, but that accusation is far from proven. Even if we add all the Old World deaths blamed on American diseases together, including those ascribed to syphilis, the total is insignificant compared to Native American losses to smallpox alone.

Source 3: 16th century drawing of Aztec smallpox victims.

Source 4: Extracts from Native American Beliefs and Medical Treatments During the Smallpox Epidemics: an Evolution by Melissa Sue Halverson Indigenous Perspectives and Historical Interactions During the early contact period (keep in mind "early contact period" represented different years throughout the many different regions of the United States), many Native Americans did not believe that disease was transmitted between individuals. Instead, they ascribed disease to supernatural forces. For example, during the early 1700s, Northern Plains groups considered smallpox to be a personification of the Bad Spirit. Disease was often thought of as punishment by the "Master of Life" for mistreatment of animals or other people. During the 1730s, the Creeks and Cherokees considered the spread of smallpox to be punishment for violations of tribal laws, such as sexual intercourse in the cornfields and village-wide violations. By 1784, the Cree attributed the epidemics to anger from God. Animal spirits were also blamed. According to traditional Cherokee knowledge, animals created diseases to protect themselves against humans Indigenous Treatments and Responses to Smallpox Between 1500 and 1600, Native Americans attempted to treat the disease with traditional medical treatments. For example, when the first smallpox epidemics coursed through North

America, Northern Plains individuals attempted to use "drum and rattle" incantations to ease the spread of the disease and to increase the will to survive. The most common medical treatment during this period was the sweat lodge. In the Northern Plains groups, willow bark was steamed in the lodge, acting as an analgesic, with conifer oils acting as decongestants. The Cherokees adopted a similar approach because they believed that plants decided to cure humans after they heard of animal spirits' evil plans to spread disease. However, many of the herbs were cathartics and emetics, and the profuse sweating often caused dehydration. Thomas Sydenham, suggested that heat therapy in the form of both steam and warmed blankets made sores worse. Furthermore, a stay in the sweat lodge was usually followed by plunging oneself into cold water, which often caused shock, cardiac arrest, "violent fevers", and generally lowered immune resistance to infection. By the early 1700s, Native Americans had begun developing additional methods to prevent infection. Southeastern Native Americans avoided diseased villages and educated others about traveling into infected areas.

Questions Answer the following questions using Sources 1-4 to back up your answers. 1. Describe the effects of the disease of smallpox in (a) the native American population

(b) the European population

2. Why did smallpox spread throughout the New World population?

3. How did the Native Americans beliefs about what caused disease aid the spread of smallpox?

4. Challenge: Do you think that if the Colombian exchange had not included diseases such as smallpox there might have been a different outcome in the settlement of the Americas?