Newspaper clippings of
European disease brought to
Researched by Kenny Morin
Leader of the
Native's cure saves crew
Indians show
explorers the virtues of the white cedar tree in curing scurvy.
March 1536
STADACONA
[
When
Cartier told Domagaya his servant had scurry, the native informed him of the
remedy annedda, made from the bark of common white cedar. Domapaya sent two
women to gather the cedar and to show the French how to brew a cure. Within a
week of drinking the cure all of Cartier’s men recovered. Some suffering from
syphillis say it helped relieve that ailment too.
More than 1,000 Indians greet Jacques
Cartier at Hochelaga, in 1535. The French explorer is impressed as this town is
bigger than Stadacona with about 50 longhouses and many well-cultivated
cornfields.
The
winter has been particularly hard on Cartier and his men. His ships have been
locked in ice since November and more than four feet of snow have fallen.
Despite all attempts to protect themselves, scurvy which first inflicted the
Indians has invaded the French camp.
While
Cartier prayed before an image of the Virgin Mary and vowed to make a
pilgrimage if his men were cured, the scurvy continued to ravage the crew
until Domagaya's cure set in. Before he approached Domagaya, fear of an Indian
attack led Cartier to mask the desperate conditions of his men.
Native funeral rites use European goods
Illustration of
native funeral procession which includes a dance ceremony.
c.1600
The
Iroquoians do not appear to discriminate against lower classes in. their burial
rites. The prized beads and iron articles are placed in the graves of ordinary
tribesmen as well as chiefs and their families. But there is sexual
discrimination. The Senecans, for example, bury more tools and beads with men
and children than with women.
Through
intertribal trade, European glass and iron goods began reaching the Iroquoians
in the last century. With the growth of the fur trade since 1580, more of the
objects have reached them. But most are disposed of in funerals. Rarely arc
they used in daily life.
There
are other distinctive features of Iroquoian burials. The dead are interred with
their heads pointed to the west. This practice is probably related to the
traditional Iroquoian belief that the land of the dead is in the west.
Natives fall victim to deadly disease
1636-37
Epidemic stirs suspicion
1637
HURON COUNTRY
- The Huron are growing more and more hostile toward Jesuit missionaries as an
epidemic of influenza cuts its deadly swath through the nation's land. The
European disease, only recently introduced to the continent, is attacking the
Hurons at an alarming rate - particularly the younger Indians and elder members
of the tribe. Lacking a cure, the epidemic has given rise to renewed Huron
suspicions of white men in general and Father Jean de Brébeuf and his fellow Jesuits
in particular.
Brébeuf and a
handful of Jesuits have been working in Huron territory since reopening the
mission in 1634. While their efforts to convert Hurons to Christianity have met
little success, an air of tolerance and co-operation has developed between the
Jesuits and the Indians despite fundamental differences in religious and social
values. With the influenza epidemic causing the Hurons to die around them, the
Jesuits are working frantically to baptize all they can. Many of those they do
baptize are too far gone to protest.
The sight of a healthy Jesuit, apparently immune from contagion,
administering rites to a native who dies soon after, has caused many Huron to
view the ceremony as an act of sorcery. Consequently, many Huron villages arc now
baring the `white shamans." The Indians' religious leaders have stirred up
the animosity toward the Jesuits with fanatical zeal punctuated by calls for
violent action against the missionaries.
Iroquois
kill Jesuit priest and aide for
"Spreading
smallpox"
IROQUOIS
COUNTRY [
Jogues was in
Iroquois country on a peace mission - his second of the year. He met the
Mohawks in May and departed on good terms a month later, leaving behind a box
filled with clothes, sacred vessels and gifts for the natives. When Jogues and
his aide Jean de La Lande returned last month, the
Mohawks gave them a hostile reception. Both were taken prisoner. The box
confirmed Iroquois suspicions about the epidemic's cause. Jogues was accused of
spreading smallpox by hiding certain charms in it. The Iroquois also blamed him
for the drought and famine which followed the missionary's first visit. He was
put to death as a sorcerer and La Lande was also
killed.
Jogues is no
stranger to Iroquois attacks. The natives ambushed a mission he was on in 1642.
After that attack, the Iroquois took Jogues prisoner and tortured him.
Smallpox epidemics take
toll on natives
1670
In one of the
earliest and most deadly epidemics, smallpox hit the St. Lawrence Valley in
1639 and killed hundreds of natives trading at
Disease ravages Louisbourg; 480 dead
April 1746
LOUISBOURG,
Ile-Royale - Scores of New England volunteers
occupying the conquered fortress at Louisbourg have
died from fever, scurvy and the bloody flux. Recent estimates put the death
toll at 480.
One soldier
reports that "putrid fevers and dysentrys" have been killing people
"like rotten sheep." Unsanitary living conditions and a shortage of
fresh food are chiefly responsible for the contagion. Gen. William Pepperrell himself is suffering from rheumatic fever, but
observers say only his devotion to his men has prevented mutiny in the
demoralized garrison.
French pass typhus to Micmac Indians
1746
The Micmac
gathered last summer at Chebucto harbor
to join Duc d'Anville's expedition against Louisbourg
and
Killing Indians by smallpox proposed
Informed
sources say General Jeffrey Amherst, British commander of colonial forces on
the Great Lakes frontier, recently "rote a vice commander, Colonel Henry
Bouquet, advising him to try to inoculate Chief Pontiac's rebellious Indians
with smallpox by means of infected blankets. The questionable ethics of this
form of warfare have caused alarm in some quarters, and Colonel Bouquet is said
to have advised General Amherst that the tactic could backfire by spreading
the feared disease among British soldiers and citizens. Others, however, are
supporting the proposal (-31).
Amherst:
proposes blanket
solution.
Smallpox epidemic hits natives hard
1781
FORT PASKOYAC [The Pas, Manitoba) - A
smallpox epidemic which last year spread as far north as the Saskatchewan River
system has reached the Athabasca Region and the Barren Grounds.
The native population is
highly susceptible to this disease. Explorer-fur trader Samuel Hearne reports
it may have killed up to 90 percent of the Chipewyans
in the
Syphilis targeting
1786
Paul, Mal Anglois,
Lustu Crue.
The symptoms of syphilis are
hideous and unmistakable. It begins with open sores on the face. Facial bones
break down, hair falls out, and lips swell. The stench increases "till
universal putrefaction ends the existence of the unfortunate sufferer."
Those who survive its ravages are perhaps unluckier than those who die. They
live on “under the united miseries of an injured constitution and a mutilated
frame."
Most doctors agree the plague
is a venereal disease, but a few disagree, claiming it is a form of pox.
Vaccine fights smallpox in
1805
Newfoundlanders can thank an
old school buddy of Clinch's, Dr. Edward Jenner, who invented the vaccination
in
Duke of
Sources close to the duke say
h, probably contracted the disease, two months ago, while touring For William
Henry in Lower Canada While on the parade ground, h, went to the rescue of his
dog, which was fighting a pet fox. The fox bit him deeply in his hand. Although
the wound bled profusely, the duke laughed off the injury and continued with
his tour.
The symptoms started to show few
days ago. On one day, the duke was full of energy, walking 24 kilo metres in a
stretch. The next, hi was exhausted. And at a tavern or the 26th he said to an
aide, "I fee that if I were a dog I should be shot as a mad one."
Finally, his condition having worsened, the duke came to a small
Devastating cholera epidemic ravages colonies
Quarantine station to check for cholera
The
station will monitor passengers on incoming ships from
CHOLERA BULLETIN
TO the President of the Board of Health of
the Gore District
Sir--I have this morning received a
communication from Doct. GILPIN of
The following ie
a report I submit to the Board of Health, on the above cases:
Casse of CHOLERA In the Gore District, from
June 28, ta ' June 25, inclusive-
(Signed) SLADE
ROBINSON,
Pres't Medical Board
This Cholercı
Bulletin shows epidemics effect oıı Caııadian communities.
Disease spreading, Upper
Despite the fact that 42 passengers had
died en route, the ship was allowed through Grosse Isle's quarantine station
below
Authorities’ believe the crowded,
unsanitary conditions on immigrant ships, coupled with the fact they're coming
from places already under the siege of cholera, are making a bad situation
worse. Symptoms include an intermittent and slow pulse, a sick stomach,
vomiting and color changes by the entire body, ranging from bluish purple to
deep brown or black, depending on the complexion.
Church bells silent as epidemic sets in
Filthy ships blamed as cholera spreads
The report concludes: "Common avarice
has led many captains, owners and agents in the seaport towns of
Typhus takes toll: hundreds of Irish die on way to
N.B.
December
1847
Smallpox killing hundreds of Indians
Since the gold rush boom of 1858, more and
more natives visit Victoria each summer, some from their territories far to the
north. They trade furs, handicrafts, fish and game
animals with the local people, and sometimes take jobs as laborers before
returning to their villages for the winter. Smallpox has spread like wildfire
through their crowded camps, and early this month white settlers began to urge
that the Indians be driven away from the city_ As a result, authorities have
evicted the Indians and burned their houses.
Northern Indians haves to return home and
they will surely carry the highly infectious with them, spreading it up the and
into the interior. The Indians have no immunity to smallpox and whole villages
stand the risk of being wiped out once the infection reaches them. It is the
worst calamity to hit the natives of this coast since the arrival of whites.
Scarlet fever killing hundreds of Indians
July
1865
PEEL'S RIVER POST. Rupert's Land - The Indians of the
Mackenzie and Yukon valleys, already weakened by European diseases are dying
by the hundreds of scarlet fever, brought in by the Hudson's Bay Company's
supply boat crews. As the boats went down the Mackenzie, they took the disease
to the various Indian camps. Then the supply expedition to
Smallpox epidemic ravages plains Indians
Fall
1869
PRAIRIES - A murderous smallpox epidemic is
devastating plains Indians. The disease has killed thousands of Bloods,
Blackfoot, Assiniboines and Crees, and has also
spread to the Métis. The epidemic began on the
The disease then spread quickly northward.
Many Wounds, a Sarcee Indian. Describes how
smallpox attacked his band. "Some became red all over, but their skin did
not break out into open sores; others were covered with red sores oozing pus.
Some were attacked in the throat; their tongues swelled and they suffocated.
Others felt pain in the spine and died in one night."
Priest charges CNR with discrimination
CARRIE, Ont. - Father Bernard Brown, a
Roman Catholic missionary from the
Typhoid epidemic linked to milkman
The man had applied for and got a job in a
local dairy.
He was fired .soon as it was learned that
he was a carrier. The facts have been given to the
Health board fears smallpox epidemic
Mistreated Métis decide
1881
The decline of the buffalo hunt forced many
Métis to leave
But Métis have also left
In recent years, many Métis and some
Country-Born have left the province to look for farmland to the west because
they have been denied land here. They have received a mere fraction of the 1.4
million acres granted them by the Manitoba Act. Through government corruption
or neglect, the grant ha, suffered delays and confusion, and most of the land
has gone to speculators. The Manitoba Act also assured the Métis and Country-
Born security of tenure for the land the: occupied in 1870. They were required
to apply to dominion officials for title to the land, but officials have
rejected many Métis claims, in some cases because the Métis occupy the land for
only a few week a year and spend the rest of the yea away on the buffalo hunt.
The Canadian government added, insult to
injury in its treatment of the Métis by stalling its granting an amnesty to Riel
and others in the
Prostitute shoots drunken Mountie
Mounties,
most of them single men under 30, are among the prostitutes' best customers,
but tonight Nellie refused to let two in – maybe because they were so drunk. She
says they threatened to wreck the house and kill her, and when the started to
kick down the door, she shot one of them in the thigh. Nellie has been arrested
on charges of malicious shooting.