Old World Infectious Diseases in the Plateau Area of North America during the Protohistoric: Rethinking Our Understanding of “Contact” in the Plateau

By

Peter N. Jones

The Bäuu Institute

Citation: Jones, Peter N. 2003. Old World Infectious Diseases in the Plateau Area of North America during the Protohistoric: Rethinking Our Understanding of "Contact" in the Plateau. Journal of Northwest Anthropology, 37(1):1-26.

Note: page numbers correspond to printed page number [p. = actual page numbers from printed version] 

[p. 1]

Abstract

Postcolonial, Oriental, and other re-visionary theories have been popular in the African, Oceanic, Middle Eastern, and Asian literature for several years, allowing anthropologists, historians, and others to rethink much of their understanding of the peoples in these areas prior to, during, and after initial Western contact. However, little of these same theoretical methods have been applied in North America, principally because North America has not usually been conceived of as having a colonial past. This paper, by way of looking at the possibility of Old World infectious diseases reaching the Plateau region during the protohistoric (A.D. 1600-1804), begins the much-needed discourse on these topics. Through an analysis of ethnohistorical documents, recent anthropological and historical studies, and other sources, this paper concludes that Old World infectious diseases probably reached the Plateau region in the 1660s via the Southwest and Great Basin regions, with subsequent epidemics caused by Old World infectious diseases arriving from the Northern Plains in the early 1700s and from the Subarctic and Northwest Coast in the mid-1700s. However, what is even more important is that this paper allows us to begin rethinking our current, “solidified” understanding of American Indian peoples of the Plateau region during the late prehistoric, protohistoric, and early historic periods.

Introduction

Several works have addressed the first recorded introduction of Old World infectious diseases into Mexico, the Southeast, the Northeast, and the Southwest culture areas of North America, yet relatively few have dealt with the topic for the Plateau culture area. Boyd (1985, 1994a, 1994b, 1998, 1999) has done a considerable amount of work on this subject although his primary area of focus has been the Northwest Coast. What has been done deals primarily with [p. 2] the historic period, chronicling historically-documented Old World infectious disease epidemics for the Plateau beginning in the mid-1770s. The first recorded epidemic is hypothesized to have been introduced to the region either by Plateau hunters returning from annual bison hunts on the Plains (Walker 1969, 1998a) or that the epidemic arose initially on the Northwest Coast and spread inland up the Columbia River to the Plateau (Boyd 1998, 1999). This initial epidemic, reported to be smallpox, is recorded to have infected the Colville (Chance 1973:120), the Nez Perce (A.B. Smith in Drury 1958:136-137), the Flathead (Mengarini 1977:193-194), the Kootenai (Curtis 1907-1930, 7:119), the Middle Columbia River Salishans (Miller 1998: 266), and many other tribes. However, relatively few studies have considered the possibility of Old World infectious diseases reaching the Plateau during the protohistoric period, prior to actual direct Euroamerican or European contact. This paper looks at this possibility through the exploration of infectious disease epidemics in neighboring regions (culture areas), the use of epidemiological theory, early Euroamerican and European notions of disease, and trade routes and exchange networks from the prehistoric through the historic periods. Furthermore, by exploring the possibilities of early disease reaching the Plateau region prior to actual contact and written documentation, we can begin to develop a baseline that will allow us to rethink many of the early ethnographies, missionary accounts, and other texts on the Plateau region in light of Postcolonial, Oriental, and other recent re-visionary theoretical methods. This last set of issues is not directly addressed in this paper, though this paper provides some of the groundwork to begin this process as well as providing several important and intriguing hypotheses that we can begin to explore. Finally, I must clarify my use of the terms Euroamerican, European, and protohistoric. Euroamerican is used to refer to non-indigenous people of Western descent who hold national affiliation with the Americas. European is used to refer to those people who are in the Americas but who continue to hold national affiliation with a European nation. The term prehistoric is used here to refer to the time before any influence or effect of Euroamericans can be noted, usually dating to pre-A.D. 1600. The protohistoric refers to the period between the prehistoric and the historic, when Euroamericans first made direct contact; for the Plateau the protohistoric dates between A.D. 1600 and 1804 with the arrival of the Lewis and Clark expedition (Walker 1998b).

Infectious Disease in Neighboring Regions

To understand the possibility of Old World infectious disease epidemics reaching the Plateau during the protohistoric, we must first look at when these diseases occurred in neighboring regions (i.e., the Southwest, Plains, Arctic and Subarctic, and Northwest Coast regions).

The Southwest

Dobyns (1983) has suggested that a pandemic swept across the American continent in the 1520s. Most scholars do not agree with Dobyns, claiming that the pandemic did not reach many parts of the Americas. For example, most scholars agree that this pandemic most likely did not reach the Plateau, although Campbell (1985, 1989) has argued that based on archaeological evidence of site depopulation it may have reached the Columbia River. Likewise, there is some evidence that many areas of Northwestern Mexico were spared the ravages of this pandemic (Jackson 1994), or that this pandemic did not cross the vast expanses of the Great Basin and Plains. Despite these examples, however, there is some evidence that this pandemic did reach the Southern Plains and the Southwest from early Spanish reports. While in present-day Texas, [p. 3] the Cabeza de Vaca party described debilitated and dying Indians infected, or recently infected, with an unspecified disease that may be a continuation of Dobyn’s postulated pandemic (Swagerty 2001:257). “When they came within sight of the mountains of west Texas, Nuñez noted evidence of the earlier smallpox pandemic of 1520-1524” (Dobyns 1983:12). The next recorded case of Old World infectious diseases reaching the Southwest does not occur until the early 1600s. Despite the Cabeza de Vaca account already noted, most scholars have concluded that epidemics of Old World infectious diseases did not start to occur in the Southwest until after Rodriguéz in 1581, Espejo in 1582, Castaño de Sosa in 1590-91, and especially Oñate in 1598 led expeditions into Northern New Mexico and visited the upper Rio Grande Pueblos (Jackson 1994; Simmons 1979). This is also when large numbers of horses first arrived in the Southwest. However, Upham (1986) has suggested that Old World diseases may have reached the Pueblos as early as the mid-1500s by noting that early Spanish records are based on a total of less than four years of sporadic contact and observation spanning an eighty-year period, from the 1530s to the early 1610s. As a result, it has been suggested that epidemics could have ravaged Puebloan populations a number of times in the sixteenth century, and historical documentation would not exist to record the introduction and spread of these epidemics (Upham 1982, 1986). Some of the mission records of New Spain that do record epidemics among American Indians note that many of the American Indians not directly in contact with Euroamericans were being infected with “sickness” or disease. For example, there are several reported cases of Lower Pima Indians traveling over 100 km, from distant villages to Spanish controlled pueblos, seeking aid from the ravages of Old World diseases (Reff 1991, 1992). Thus, it is generally held that Old World infectious diseases were not in the Southwest until the late 1590s.

The Plains

Recent research on the topic concludes that the first epidemics to reach the Northern Plains occurred in the 1730s (Swagerty 2001). This first epidemic is credited to be smallpox, infecting the western Cree and probably the western Sioux and Arikara (Taylor 1977; Swagerty 2001). However, the possibility of earlier epidemics originating in the Southeast and Northeast regions and spreading to Plains groups does exist. For example, some have claimed that one of the New England epidemics (circa 1630) spread up into the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence region, reaching Canada and possibly west to the Missouri River (Duffy 1953, 1997). The strength of this argument can be seen in a later epidemic in which Ramenofsky (1987:130) traced a smallpox epidemic from the Middle Missouri River to have originated two years earlier in the Valley of Mexico. Ramenofsky claims that smallpox spread from the Valley of Mexico in 1779 up to New Mexico by 1780, and then diffused, presumably by horse, to the Middle Missouri by 1781-82. It must be noted that this epidemic occurred after horses were ubiquitous throughout the Plains and other regions, greatly facilitating the spread of smallpox and other Old World diseases. However, epidemics occurring in the Northeast and the Southeast could have traveled along river trade corridors, which have been shown to cover long distances, linking disparate areas together (see below). Once the horse arrived, the Southwest most probably played a major role in the transference of Old World disease along trade routes into the Northern Plains, the Great Basin, and the Plateau. The broad and far ranging dynamics of the trade networks which developed as a result of the trade in horses and other items can be seen in the following: “The geographer David Thompson recorded from the Piegan informant Saukamappee an epidemic on ‘the Stag River [probably the Red Deer River between Calgary and Edmonton] death came over us all, and swept [sic] more than half of us by the Smallpox, of which we knew nothing…. We caught it from the Snake Indians’” (Thompson 1962:245-46). The Snake in this account are the [p. 4] Shoshone Indians who probably contracted smallpox from the Pueblos or possibly the Utes with whom they traded. Similarly, there are various reports in early fur trapper journals of the occurrence of Old World infectious diseases among American Indians prior to contact. In the early 1780s when fur traders began to push west to the Rocky Mountains and beyond, they recorded evidence of smallpox, which “extended in every direction” (Davidson 1918:11). Therefore, it is believed that Old World infectious diseases reached the Southern Plains shortly after they reached the Southwest in the early 1600s, but did not reach the Northern Plains until the late 1600s.

The Arctic and Subarctic

Little has been done on the first epidemics of Old World disease in the Arctic and Subarctic regions. Nevertheless, we can glean some information from epidemics that occurred in Russia and various other ethnographic accounts. It must be noted first that epidemics occurred frequently in Russia from A.D. 1200 until the late 1800s. Most scholars have focused on Western Russia and its interactions with the rest of Europe, neglecting to mention Eastern Russia, especially the Kamchatka peninsula, which was the major staging ground for Russian expeditions to the Americas. However, the Kamchatka peninsula was not an isolated area from the rest of Russia and Asia, especially after Cossacks began exploring the area in the mid to late 1600s (Krasheninnikov 1962, 1972; Neatby 1973).

The widely recognized epidemic that devastated central Russia in 1770-72 had many predecessors, such as the epidemics of 1570-71 and 1654 (Alexander 1980:17). In fact, Russia experienced frequent epidemics of smallpox, typhus, dysentery, and other disease throughout the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. What is of importance here is that Siberia and the Kamchatka peninsula experienced the ravages of these epidemics as well, the primary staging ground for Russian expeditions to the Americas, although many of the records are still untranslated and remain in Russian archives. However, there is much evidence to support the claim that smallpox was endemic in Kamchatka by the eighteenth century. One such outbreak was reportedly so bad and, “The disfiguring disease claimed so many victims in Siberia that a team of surgical personnel went there in 1763 to organize a ‘smallpox house’ in Tobol’sk” (Alexander 1980:55). Therefore, it is very likely that most, if not all, Russian expeditions to Alaska and the surrounding area had been exposed to smallpox and were transporters of the disease to American Indian peoples. The account of smallpox among the Tlingit some years later by Captain Portlock in 1787 is one of the first recorded cases (Dixon 1789) of this disease in the Subarctic. Similarly, in 1794 a captain recorded that a severe epidemic had ravaged the Kaigani some years earlier and found the disease active among Chief Shakes and his people at Kitkatla (Bishop 1967). Therefore, it is recognized that Old World infectious diseases had reached the Arctic and Subactic by the late 1700s, and most likely earlier, as will be discussed below.

Northwest Coast

A large number of ethnohistorians, anthropologists, and others have concluded that the first Old World epidemics to reach the Plateau occurred on the Northwest Coast first, subsequently traveling inland up the Columbia River (see Boyd 1999). The earliest recorded Old World disease epidemic on the Northwest Coast does not occur until the 1770s, and Boyd (1999) has covered these and subsequent cases in exceptional detail. However, Old World disease transference to the Northwest Coast prior to this period cannot be ruled out. There are several examples of shipwrecked oriental junks on the Oregon and Alaskan Coasts prior to the 1700s [p. 5] (Brooks 1876; Quimby 1985; McCartney 1984). Likewise, the Drake expedition of 1579 landed in the region as well as the little known Juan de Fuca expedition in 1592. However, what seems most probable is the transference of Old World diseases among American Indians across the numerous trade routes that went up and down the coast as well as inland up the Columbia, Fraser, and other rivers. These trade routes would have transferred Old World infectious diseases from infected tribes either in the Arctic and Subarctic (initially from Russians), the Southwest and California (initially from Spaniards), or from the Plains (initially from French, Britons, and Spaniards). Thus, we may state that the first documented cases of Old World infectious diseases reached the Northwest Coast in the 1770s, but there is strong evidence for the possibility of earlier occurrences, which will be discussed below.

Epidemiology and Early Euroamerican Notions of Disease

Many ethnohistorians, anthropologists, and others have relied quite heavily on early Spanish, British, Russian, missionary, and other early documents to track the first cases of Old World infectious diseases in the Americas. Many have claimed that these diseases, primarily smallpox, did not reach certain areas of North America until the first clearly documented accounts can be found in these early records. For example, Archer (1999) has followed this line of reasoning in his analysis of the first Old World infectious diseases to reach the Northwest Coast. “The Spaniards made no reference to smallpox aboard their ships or signs of the disease in the Native populations” (Archer 1999:169). Similarly, “[a]t least Martinez mentioned smallpox when he thought he saw its unmistakable pockmarks! Likely, the Russian commander had suffered the disease years before in Kamchatka where it was known to have been almost endemic” (Archer 1999:187). However, if one understands both the epidemiological nature of many of these diseases as well as the Euroamerican and European understanding of disease during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, a slightly different picture emerges.

Smallpox is one of the most virulent of the Old World infectious diseases, and the description of its “characteristic” pockmarks in early records have been relied upon as evidence of its occurrence among American Indian populations. There are two varieties of smallpox: variola minor and variola major. For both varieties of smallpox there are ten possible classifications by symptoms, with varying mortality rates for each. In general, variola minor is believed to have a low mortality rate in any of its manifestations. The same is true for five types of variola major (discrete, mild, abortive, variola sin eruptione, and miscellaneous). Thus, when high death rates occur among populations it is likely to be caused by one of the other five types of variola major: fulminating (100 percent mortality), malignant confluent (70 percent), malignant semi-confluent (25 percent), benign confluent (20 percent), and benign semi-confluent (10 percent) (Dixon 1962:6-7). However, what has been overlooked by most ethnohistorians, anthropologists, and others is that the “characteristic” pockmarks of smallpox are in fact not “characteristic” at all. The reason for this is that the “characteristics” of smallpox have not been extensively studied because of its eradication in 1980 from the world (W.H.O 2002). However, there are a few studies that have used historical evidence from Europe to explore this question. One study that looked at the occurrence of smallpox in England in the seventeenth and eighteenth century noted that only 12 out of 100 people exhibited pockmarks when infected with smallpox (Creighton 1894). Likewise, an examination of many of the colonial records shows little indication that pockmarked faces were common. “It is safe to say that in the colonies, as in England, the extent of pockmarked faces has been exaggerated” (Duffy 1953:108). “Furthermore, although the [p. 6] Spanish word viruelas, which appears again and again in the chronicles of the sixteenth century, is almost invariably translated as ‘smallpox,’ it specifically means not the disease but the pimpled, pustuled appearance which is the most obvious symptom of the disease” (Crosby 1997:94). Therefore, smallpox may have occurred in areas where no record of its occurrence was recorded, or it may have been recorded as another sickness if the pockmarks were not clearly visible. An example of this possibility can be seen in the mission records of early Northwestern New Spain where in some missions smallpox was recorded while in neighboring missions only deaths were noted with no mention of smallpox or other types of Old World disease (Jackson 1994).

Not only have various aspects of smallpox been overlooked, but some of the basic understandings of epidemiological theory have been misunderstood. There has been a distortion of the epidemiological concept of “virgin soil epidemic” by ethnohistorians, anthropologists, and others who use the term to refer to populations as lacking any previous exposure to particular pathogens, when in fact, the term refers to populations “in which an organism has not been present for many years, if ever” (Mausner and Bahn 1974:27). Therefore, when many of the first-contact records describe high mortality rates, it is possible that they are not describing the first epidemic that occurred among those people, but simply the current epidemic. Populations can experience “virgin soil epidemics” every couple of generations if the pathogen has not recently been present among them. Thus, for example, in many cases a mortality rate between 55 to 90 percent among American Indians was recorded in the nineteenth century (Stearn and Stearn 1945:15), which is characteristic of a “virgin soil epidemic” even though we know these were not the first epidemics among these tribes.

Many of the Old World infectious diseases such as typhoid and smallpox can travel long distances or can remain in a population for long periods of time, infecting people who interact with the infected people, or it can be transferred through trade to infect distant groups. For example, roughly 5 percent of those who contract typhoid retain Shigella spores for many years, disseminating the bacteria in their feces. Individuals who contract amoebic dysentery also can harbor the disease for many months if not years (Cloudsley-Thompson 1976:129-131). Likewise, smallpox can remain virulent for many months to over a year in certain conditions. The survival of smallpox outside the body depends on the bearing agent, the temperature, and the humidity. On cotton, lab tests have shown that the virus can survive for 185 days at 30 degrees Celsius and 58 percent humidity. Likewise, the scabs of a victim, which can transmit the disease, have been known to survive for eighteen months (530 days) in certain conditions (Dixon 1962:304). Textiles, particularly cotton, as well as various furs and animal hides such as those of horses or dogs also can harbor smallpox or carry scabs. Moreover, there is some evidence that the measles and influenza viruses can be transmitted in textiles (May 1958). Therefore, these diseases could have been transmitted hundreds of miles by various actions in the contact of infected people or in the trade and exchange of furs, textiles, horses, or other goods. There are numerous reports from missionaries, trappers, and others who described their first contact with native groups and who reported that the contact took place during or shortly after epidemics, which affected wholly or primarily children. “Exclusive or high case frequency and mortality among children is an indication that their parents and other adults had an acquired resistance to the malady that afflicted them” (Reff 1991:17), indicating that the epidemic recorded by these first explorers was probably not the first.

Likewise, some of the Euroamerican and American Indian practices towards treating and preventing disease outbreaks must be discussed. It has already been noted by others that various American Indian medicinal practices increased the mortality of these Old World infectious [p. 7] diseases, such as sweat bathing and cold baths. Early Spanish observers of Nahuatl behavior commented on the negative consequences of these practices (Dobyns 1983). Similarly, it has been noted from European examples that climate greatly affects the virulency of many of these diseases. Studies from northern Europe have shown that there are distinct patterns of seasonal mortality associated with greater numbers of deaths due to the cooler and damper weather in the winter and spring than in southern Europe (Jackson 1994). Furthermore, throughout the early historic period qualified doctors where very rare in the American west, allowing for the possibilities of misrepresentation or misdiagnosis of illnesses and Old World infectious diseases. “Only twenty-six persons who graduated from Harvard before 1700 are known to have practiced medicine in New England… perhaps twelve or more practiced surgery, three were barber-surgeons, six or severn were ministers as well as physicians, one practitioner was listed as a doctor, a schoolmaster, and a poet; another kept a tavern, and one was female” (Vogel 1970: 112).

Finally, few have discussed some of the progressive actions taken by Spaniards and early colonists to prevent the spread of these diseases that could have influenced the accuracy of many early Euroamerican records, especially ship records. In the early 1600s many colonies, as well as the Spanish in Mexico and California, enacted quarantine laws for incoming ships that reported having a sickness onboard or came from infected ports. For example, in 1636 the governor of Virginia noted “that where the most pestered ships vent their passengers they carry with them almost a general mortality” (Duffy 1953:14). Thus, practically all the colonies enacted laws requiring ships from infected ports to await ten to twenty days’ quarantine, some ports even refused to allow the ships to enter port (Duffy 1953). This was a very radical measure that many ship captains did not agree with, for most sailors did not want to spend an extra ten to twenty days on ship after a long voyage once they were in port as well as the cargo possibly spoiling during the quarantine time. Thus, it is very possible that many of the ship logs and reports purposely failed to include any mention of sickness or disease for fear of being quarantined upon arrival.

Trade Routes and Exchange Networks from the Prehistoric through the Historic Periods

Analysis of prehistoric, protohistoric, and historic trade routes and exchange networks can provide many insights into the theoretical possibility of Old World infectious disease transference and diffusion prior to direct Euroamerican or European contact. By showing the existence of established trade routes and exchange networks which date back into the prehistoric, the possibility is greatly increased that these trade routes and exchange networks acted as “access corridors” in the pre-contact (the protohistoric) diffusion and transference of many Old World infectious diseases such as smallpox, typhus, measles, and others. Furthermore, as this paper discusses below, many of these trade routes were used by Europeans and Euroamericans during their initial expeditions and explorations. There is a large body of work documenting prehistoric exchange in the Plateau and neighboring areas, and the following section gives only a brief overview of several major items exchanged or traded throughout these periods.

Obsidian and Other Lithics

Obsidian and other lithic materials were traded over long distances throughout prehistory, linking areas as vast as Mesoamerica to the Southeast of the United States, and the Arctic to the Great Basin (Carlson 1994; Clark 1981; Connolly 1999). The prehistoric and protohistoric trade [p. 8] of Edziza (northern British Columbia) obsidian occurred throughout the western Subarctic, northern Plateau, and southern Arctic regions. Edziza obsidian was traded down the Stikine River and then north and south along the British Columbian and Alaskan coasts and is documented to have reached as far away as the Alaska Panhandle to the west; north into the Yukon; and south and east into the interior of British Columbia and across the Rocky Mountains into Alberta (Carlson 1994; Clark 1981; Fladmark 1985). Slightly further south, Anahim Peak obsidian was traded down into the Columbia Plateau along the Fraser River, as well as down the Bella Coola Valley to the coast where it overlapped with the Edziza obsidian network (Carlson 1994). Likewise, obsidian from Oregon (e.g., Newberry Crater obsidian) appears to have been traded down the Columbia River to the coast, then north through Puget Sound and up the Fraser River into the interior of British Columbia (Carlson 1994) as well as into southern Idaho and parts of the Great Basin (Connolly 1999). This Oregon obsidian, along with obsidian from northern California and the northwestern Great Basin, has been recovered from sites widely distributed from the coast of northern California down to the central inland valleys of California (Jackson and Ericson 1994) and across into the Great Basin. There is also evidence for a smaller nephrite trade network centered on the middle Fraser River which extended throughout the British Columbia Plateau of Washington and south into the Columbia Plateau during prehistoric and protohistoric times (Darwent 1998).

It is important to note that some of these large trade networks of obsidian are associated with many of the cultural complexes typical of the Northwest Coast peoples during the protohistoric and historic period, which implies similar trade patterns among the protohistoric and historic Plateau, Northwest Coast, and Great Basin peoples prior to and after contact. Not only is there evidence of trade up and down the Northwest Coast, but there is the possibility of trade occurring between Eastern Asia and Alaska during prehistoric and protohistoric times; there is evidence of far-reaching trade networks stretching from the Kolyma River in northeastern Siberia to Atkinson Point in northwestern Canada (Anderson 1984:91). Likewise, there is some evidence that sailing vessels of Asian origin may have occasionally wrecked on American shores prior to the first direct Euroamerican contact, either in the act of trade or due to being blown off course during fishing expeditions possibly dating back as far as A.D. 100 (Brooks 1876, McCartney 1984; Quimby 1985; Reedy-Maschner and Maschner 1999:733). Finally, there is some evidence that Chukchi peoples traded between Siberia, Alaska, and the islands in between (Dmytryshyn et al. 1988, 1989; Krasheninnikov 1962).

Marine Shells

Shells from several varieties of species appear to have been traded throughout the Plateau, most originating either in the Puget Sound area of Washington or further south, along the California coast (Erickson 1990). There were three major exchange networks between the California Coast and the Great Basin during the prehistoric, protohistoric, and historic periods: the Southern California Exchange Network which interacted with Owens Valley, Death Valley, and the surrounding areas; the Central California Exchange Network which interacted with the western and eastern sectors of the Great Basin; and the Northern California Exchange Network which interacted with the northern Great Basin and the southern Plateau area (Bennyhoff and Hughes 1987:155). Shells traceable to the Central California Exchange Network have been recovered as far away as Danger Cave and Hogup Cave in Utah (Hughes 1994). Likewise, Erickson (1990) has documented a complex exchange network between the Northwest Coast and the Plateau that stretched into the northern Great Basin, and possibly overlapped with the Northern California Exchange Network. The available evidence indicates that the western Great [p. 9] Basin has been a major shell redistribution center throughout prehistory into the protohistoric (Bennyhoff and Hughes 1987:156), linking the California coast, the Great Basin, the Plateau, and the Northwest Coast.

On the eastern side of the Plateau, across the Rocky Mountains, there is also a large body of evidence documenting constant trade between the Gulf Coast, the Great Lakes, across the Appalachian plateau down to the Susquehanna or Hudson Rivers as well as to the lower Missouri River, the Northern Plains, and up into Canada (Brose 1994:230; Trigger 1978). Likewise, there is an east-west pattern of exchange that directly ties the northern Plains with the Great Lakes and Missouri River west to the Plateau and Pacific coast (Vehik and Baugh 1994). In the prehistoric, protohistoric, and early historic, “[F]rom the middle and south Atlantic coasts political elites engaged in a focused trade, moving coastal shell artifacts inland in exchange for Appalachian or Great Lakes copper” (Brose 1994:232). Similarly, there is evidence that material from the Northern Plains (Kootenai argillite, Top of the World and Montana cherts); the Pacific coast (Dentalium and Olivella shells); the Plateau (Obsidian and Nephrite); and the Great Lakes (copper) were exchanged through trade networks and exchange systems throughout these regions (Vehik and Baugh 1994; Trigger 1978; Swagerty 2001). Some of these exchange networks had direct or semi-direct contact with groups of people hundreds or even thousands of miles away. For example, in the Lower Mississippi one exchange network, “span[ned]s more than 1,500 km, with the lower 500 km being the primary zone of consumption” (Gibson 1994:161).

Horses

During the protohistoric and historic periods, the horse played an important role in exchange networks, by both expanding the distance and scope of these networks as well as changing tribal dynamics and control over the trade items and networks themselves. Most ethnohistorians, anthropologists, and others place the arrival of the horse in the Plateau by the early 1700s (see Walker 1998b). However, there is some evidence that this may be when major influxes of horses were traded up from the Southwest, and the possibility that horses were in the Plateau area as early as the late 1600s exists. For example, it is generally accepted that horses spread from the Southwest Pueblos where they were originally received from the Spanish. Many contend that after the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, when the Spanish left the Southwest abandoning many of their horses, large influxes of horses were traded north among Apache, Shoshone, Comanche, and Ute peoples (Spicer 1962). However, accounts of Apache raids on the Pueblos for horses and other objects are recorded to have begun as early as the late 1500s (Ortiz 1983; Ford 1983). From the Southwest, horses spread to secondary trade centers located in Utah around the Great Salt Lake, southwestern Wyoming (Malouf and Findlay 1986), along the Missouri River at the Mandan-Hidatsa and Arikara villages, and on the James River where a Sioux trade fair attracted Teton, Yanktonai, Yankton, and Sisseton groups (Ewers 1979; Swagerty 2001). Horses appear to have reached as far north as the present-day Canadian border by the early 1700s among the Blackfoot, though it seems to have taken another twenty to thirty years to reach the Caddo tribes to the east (Ewers 1979). Haines (1938a, 1938b) has suggested that the Blackfoot acquired the horse around 1700 based on an account recorded by Thompson (1962). This account describes a Blackfoot war chief discussing his recollections of the first horse he saw, which he stated was acquired from the Snake (Shoshone). This would mean that the Shoshone and other neighboring groups of the Shoshone had acquired the horse sometime in the 1600s. In fact, some have claimed that the horse reached some Plains groups as early as 1640 based on ethnohistorical and archaeological evidence (Ramenofsky 1987). It would also seem very likely from this account that some Plateau groups had received the horse by this time since many were in regular contact and trade with the Shoshone. [p. 10]

Once the horse reached the Northern Plains and the Plateau, the prehistoric trade networks between these two regions intensified and became more complex, linking the Northern Plains, Great Basin, and Plateau. “One route led from the Upper Yellowstone eastward to the Hidatsa and Mandan villages on the Missouri. The Crow Indians of the Middle Yellowstone served as intermediaries in a flourishing trade in horses and mules, securing large numbers of these animals from the Flathead, Shoshoni, and probably also the Nez Perce on the Upper Yellowstone in exchange for objects of European manufacture” (Ewers 1979:7). Likewise, numerous trails have been recorded between Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming (Bergland 1992; Merrell and Clark 2001), as well as the Columbia River Trade Network which followed rivers and trails linking California, the Great Basin, the Northwest Coast, and the Northern Plains with the Plateau (Stern 1998). In the protohistoric and historic several tribes gathered on the James River in present day South Dakota to barter for horses and other items. The Teton, Yankton, Yanktonai, Eastern Dakota, Arikara, and other groups would trade items, including European manufactured goods which were obtained from Euroamerican traders on the St. Peters and Des Moines Rivers (Ewers 1979). There was also an extensive trade network that involved most of the tribes of the Plateau, as well as some Great Basin and Plains tribes located at several key sites along the Columbia River and throughout the Plateau (Stern 1998).

Early European and Euroamerican Contact

Finally, it is necessary to look at the period directly before Euroamericans, Europeans, Russians, and others first contacted the American Indians of the Northwest Coast and Plateau as well as the neighboring areas. It is generally accepted that Captain Aleksei I. Chirikov landed on the southeastern coast of Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula in 1741. There were two major Russian crown-sponsored expeditions to Kamchatka, present-day Alaska, and the surrounding waters: the First Kamchatka Expedition, from 1725-30, under Captain Vitus J. Bering; and the Second Kamchatka Expedition, from 1733-41, under Bering and Captain Aleksei I. Chirikov, which explored Aleutian and Alaskan waters. There is evidence, though meager, that some variety of disease was present among both Bering’s and Chirikov’s ships because of the recorded deaths which occurred on board (Golder 1922; Krasheninnikov 1972). Some scholars have suggested that the “secret” expedition led by captains Petr K. Krenitsyn and Mikhail D. Levashev in 1764-1769 was possibly the first transference of Old World infectious diseases to American Indians via Russians, namely to the Tlingit. The Krenitsyn and Levashov expedition of 1768 lost 50 men to “sickness” while they remained in the Aleutians for a year, and the possible early date of 1769 for Tlingit smallpox makes sense in terms of transmission from Kamchatka (Boyd 1999:33). The validity of this epidemic has been questioned, although Portlock’s (1789) observation that Tlingit from east of Sitka were pockmarked, while those from the west were not, and Khlebnikov’s (1976) assertion that the disease spread north from the Stikine River to Sitka support its occurrence. It should also be noted, however, that Krenitsyn and Levashev were sent on their expedition to further explore the waters and lands beyond Kamchatka for the Russian crown and to verify discoveries made by Russian promyshlenniks (hunters) that the crown had heard about (Dmytryshyn et al. 1988, 1989). These Russian hunters were a very hardy group reaching the Commander Islands within two years of Bering’s voyage, and the mainland of Alaska soon thereafter (Masterson and Brower 1948). “It has been estimated that over forty North Pacific companies operated between Kamchatka, Alaska, and the Aleutian Islands from 1743 to 1799” (Dmytryshyn et al. 1988:xl), of which little is known, not to mention single private voyages that most likely took place. It is generally not recognized that Russian promyshlenniks (hunters), along with official crown sponsored expeditions occurred much more frequently and earlier than [p. 11] usually discussed. For example, Russians had established a small community at the mouth of the Yukon in the early 1760-70s which was not part of any crown-sponsored effort. Ivan Kobelev discusses in his journal his voyage and contact with natives in 1779: “In conversation he [Kaigun Momokhunin, a chief elder] revealed that on American territory, along the Kherven River [Yukon], there is a small ostrog called Kymgov where Russian people live. They speak Russian, read and write, worship icons, and have different features from native Americans; the latter have sparse beards which they pluck out, while the Russians who live there have big heavy beards” (Dmytryshyn et al. 1988:255). Likewise, many of the first Russian accounts of the people of Kamchatka describe the natives trading and being aware of the peoples and land of Alaska (Krasheninnikov 1962, 1972).

The Spanish are also well known for their early exploration of the west American coast, partly in response to rumors heard by the Spanish crown that Russians had begun to encroach into the crown territory of Northwestern New Spain (i.e., California). The first Spanish voyage that reached the Northwest Coast above the Columbia River and also the first introduction of Old World infectious diseases is generally believed to have been that of Juan Perez in 1774-75. This voyage is documented to have landed on Vancouver Island in August of 1774, and there are official records of two deaths, one of a mysterious illness which killed the boatswain in three days (Beals 1989:31). There is also an earlier voyage that reputedly sailed above the forty-second parallel. This little known voyage by Juan de Fuca, an obscure Greek pilot whose real name was Apostolos Valerianos, and its explorations above the forty-second parallel could also have been a carrier of Old World infectious diseases. Fuca found a broad inlet “between 47 and 48 degrees in Latitude [possibly the Columbia River], into which Fuca sailed for twenty days” (Beals 1989:9). According to Lok (Cook 1973:539), in 1592 Fuca sailed from Mexico City north past the forty-second parallel. Likewise, Francis Drake sailed along the Northwest Coast during his famous voyage of 1578, but most scholars claim that no recorded diseases were present on his ship. Thus, there is strong evidence that Europeans and Russians had made contact with Northwest Coast, Arctic, and Subarctic tribes before the 1700s, possibly transmitting Old World infectious diseases.

Once Europeans and Russians reached the Northwest Coast and the Arctic, native trade routes and exchange networks could easily have carried Old World infectious diseases well ahead of actual Euroamerican or Russian contact. In the historic period, the Tlingit of the upper Northwest Coast were major traders with neighboring tribes, and they commanded a large and complex trade network (De Laguna 1990). The Tlingit traded inland up the Stikine River with the Tahltan for caribou and moose hides, furs, robes of marmot and ground squirrel, sinew, babiche, obsidian, snowshoes, and articles of skin clothing in exchange for fish oils, dentalia and haliotis shells, shell knives, stone axes, wooden boxes, woven baskets, Chilkat blankets, and other ceremonial items (Albright 1984; Emmons 1911; McClellan 1981). The Tahltan traded some of the items received from the Tlingit with the Kaska and Sekani peoples further toward the interior (Albright 1984; Emmons 1911; MacLachlan 1981; McClellan 1981), reaching the Rocky Mountains. Likewise, the Tahltan, Kaska, and Sekani traded with the Carrier and Chilcotin who in turn traded with tribes further south in the Plateau (McClellan 1981). The Tlingit also traded north and south along the coast with the Eyak, Tsimshian, Haida, and other Subarctic Athapaskan tribes (De Laguna 1990). The rivers from the coast inland functioned as major trade corridors between coastal tribes and inland tribes with some of the larger trade networks occurring on the Copper, Taku, Stikine, Nass, Skeena, Bella Coola, Fraser, and Columbia Rivers; all had large trade networks on them, trading inland goods for those of the coast (Hester and Nelson 1978; MacLachlan 1981; McClellan 1981; Stern 1998; Mitchell and [p. 12] Donald 2001). These coastal routes were connected with inland networks which linked the Great Basin, Northern Plains, and inland British Columbia together (Anastasio 1972; Stern 1993, 1998; Walker 1967; Walker and Sprague 1998).

On the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains, the Chipewyan and Beaver Indians were encouraged to expand their trapping territory (in the 1600s and 1700s) far beyond their usual range, eventually trapping as far as the Rocky Mountains and Slavey territory (Reedy-Maschner and Maschner 1999:711). Likewise, many tribes including the Kootenai, Flathead, and Shoshone experienced confrontations with the Blackfoot who were expanding their territory partially in response to Euroamerican influences (Ewers 1979; Brunton 1998). As mentioned above, the Plateau tribes were in contact with many of the Great Basin tribes as well, trading salmon, camas, and other items for shells, obsidian, and other goods through the Columbia River Trade Network (Stern 1998).

Finally, it should be noted that many of the first Euroamerican travelers to reach the Plateau and neighboring areas followed well-established native trade routes. For example, Sir Alexander Mackenzie used several well-established Indian trails on his famous exploratory journey to the Pacific in 1793 (Cruikshank 1895:317). Likewise, Spanish explorers and conquistadors, rather than forging new roads, used Indian trails in their expansion north from the Valley of Mexico (Reff 1991, 1992), as well as the Fremont, Walker, Donner, Lewis and Clark, and other early explorer expeditions. Many of these Indian trails became established Euroamerican trade routes during the fur trade. This may help explain how, first the French, and then the British, reached such distant places relatively easily in their quest for furs. For example, by 1754 French traders had explored all of the Missouri except for small portions between the Bad-Cheyenne Rivers and the Platte River (Nasatir 1952). “The French in 1756 held a chain of posts from Montreal to the foot of the Rockies” (Davidson 1918:32), as well as posts on the Ohio, St. Joseph, Wisconsin, Wabash, Illinois, Red River, Arkansas, Osage, upper Saskatchewan, and Kansas Rivers (Davidson 1918). Similarly, many of the first Euroamericans to reach inland British Columbia via the Parsnip River recorded encountering the natives (Sekanis, Carriers, and others) possessing Euroamerican items traded from the coast (Davidson 1918), as did Lewis and Clark during their famous expedition across the Plateau to the Pacific Coast (Walker and Sprague 1998). Trade routes transferred news of Spanish and Russian explorers well ahead of actual contact. Middle Columbia River Salishans heard of Spanish and Russian explorers during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, followed shortly after by direct European goods. Similarly, in the early 1700s news of the horse arrived among the Middle Columbia River Salishans prior to the horses actual arrival in the 1740s (Miller 1998:266). The effects of the fur trade can also be seen in the movement of American Indian tribes in search for more and more furs to supply the growing demand. For example, the Cree and Beaver Indians are thought to have moved from Saskatchewan and the Clearwater River into Alberta to the foot of the Rocky Mountains in the late 1600s and early 1700s as a result of the fur trade (Pollock 1978; Ridington 1981) “It seems apparent that by the time of Mackenzie’s visit to the Peace River country in 1788 the indigenous Beaver had already been in contact with the Cree for some time; at least several generations if one is to explain the assimilation of Cree cultural traits” (Pollock 1978:15). Thus, large areas of the Americas were in contact with each other through the trade and exchange of items, and it seems that these trade and exchange networks only became more complex and diversified with the acquisition of the horse. Map 1 shows some of the trade routes and exchange networks discussed in the above text. [p. 13]

[p. 14]

Conclusion and Future Research

Now that a brief overview has been covered, it is possible to discuss the possibility of Old World infectious diseases reaching the Plateau area prior to Euroamerican contact. First, it must be noted that epidemic diseases have been documented in other areas of the Americas before direct Euroamerican contact. For example, epidemic diseases were introduced to the Yucatan of Mexico as early as 1517, reducing the population from an estimated 800,000 people to as few as 250,000 before 1544 when Spaniards first reached the Yucatan (Duffy 1997). Likewise, the many examples given above illustrate this possibility. Based on the evidence presented in this paper, it is concluded that Old World infectious diseases reached the Plateau well before the 1770s from the north, south, and east. As has been discussed, all three of these areas experienced Old World epidemic diseases at an early date. To the north, early contact with Russian expeditions, fur traders, and promyshlenniks introduced diseases to Arctic and Subarctic tribes by the mid-1700s, and it is very possible that Old World diseases were introduced as early as 1741 with the Chirikov and Bering expedition. Because of the highly developed and complex trade networks that involved the coastal tribes (i.e., Tlingit, Nuu-chal-nulth, Kwakwakwatl, Tshimshian, Haida, Salishans, Alaskan Coastal Eskimo, and others) as well as those inland (i.e., Tahltan, Carrier, Chilcotin, Shuswap, Lillooett, Thompson, Salishans, and others) the possibility of transference of this first introduction of Old World infectious diseases is very likely. The Plains, especially the Northern Plains, is another highly probable area for the introduction of Old World diseases into the Plateau. In Walker (1998a) this has been discussed as a possibility, and the evidence given here strengthens this claim. Once horses reached the Plains and Plateau tribes, regular and frequent interaction and trade between these areas existed. In fact, there is even evidence that trade between these two areas existed prior to the introduction of the horse, but not at such frequent intervals and levels of intensity. Like the north, it is highly probable that Old World infectious diseases reached the Plateau by way of Plains tribes through these trade networks. Finally, the Southwest via the Great Basin is a very likely place of introduction of Old World infectious diseases to the Plateau. As with the Plains, horses were regularly traded along the western front range of the Rocky Mountains, and there were several well-developed trade locations such as the western front range of the Wasatch Mountains in Utah and the Green River in southwestern Wyoming (Shimkin 1986). Finally, Plateau inhabitants themselves have claimed to have traded at the “British posts in Alberta, at the Spanish settlements in New Mexico, and with seagoing traders along the Northwest Coast” (Walker and Sprague 1998:138). As has been discussed, smallpox, and possibly other Old World infectious diseases, transfer quite readily and can survive on cotton and other textiles, as well as horse and dog hair. It is concluded that Old World epidemic diseases reached the Plateau region from all three of these areas prior to the 1770s, either through trade items, Plateau peoples themselves returning from trade with other areas, or contact with infected tribes in neighboring regions. It is believed that the first occurrence of Old World infectious diseases (most likely smallpox) began in the 1660s on the Plateau, arriving from the Southwest via the eastern edge of the Great Basin. Later, in the early 1700s, other epidemics spread from the Northern Plains affecting first eastern Plateau tribes, but eventually most likely reaching the Pacific Coast. Finally, in the 1760s, the Arctic and Subactic regions began to spread Old World diseases to the Plateau most likely down the Northwest Coast and up the Columbia River, but also possibly via the Fraser River and the Okanagan Valley.

We will never know for sure when Old World infectious diseases first reached the Plateau region. However, that does not deny the probability of Old World infectious diseases reaching the Plateau during the protohistoric, especially prior to the 1770s, which this paper [p. 15] presents a strong case for. However, what is significant is that this analysis presents a strong case for (re)interpreting much of the early ethnographic work, the early missionary records, and the early explorers journals and accounts of the Plateau to see if what is presented has not already been influenced by Old World infectious diseases and other European effects. As Comaroff and Comaroff (1992), Piot (1999) and other postcolonial studies have pointed out for Africa, many of the early ethnographic and missionary reports contained misrepresentations of the indigenous people in order to help justify systems of administration, instruction, dominance, and assimilation. Likewise, as Edward Said (2000) has discussed for the Middle East as well as for anthropological, historical, and other text based culture histories in the same theoretical vein as Clifford and Marcus (1986), Asad (1973), Leclerc (1972) and others, most of the early documents were politically biased, contained omissions, inaccurate facts, and misleading depictions of the native peoples. As mentioned at the beginning, few have begun to apply postcolonial, oriental, and other contemporary theoretical techniques to American Indian studies. In a recent paper Nurse (2001) has begun this process by looking at the early ethnographic work of Marius Barbeau, a noted Canadian anthropologist, and his representations of American Indians. Nurse concluded that Barbeau’s ethnographic work “did not stand outside the political and cultural dynamics of aboriginal-white relations” (Nurse 2001:465), but instead helped constitute them by depicting the Huron-Wyandot as an assimilated, degenerate people. Likewise, as a recent reanalysis of Julian Steward and his work concerning the Great Basin and the Numic peoples has demonstrated, many of his analyses were based on limited fieldwork time and biased views of Numic peoples stemming principally from his early years in the Owens Valley (Clemmer, Myers, and Rudden 1999). Finally, many of the early explorers of the West, such as Lewis and Clark (Moulton 1991), John Fremont (Fremont 1881), as well as many of the early Spanish and French explorers, fur trappers, and missionaries came with particular views and ideologies of American Indians already in their consciousness that influenced much of their understanding and writing of their encounters with American Indians (Jones in preparation).

This paper urges us to being the process of applying Postcolonial and Oriental theory to our understanding of American Indians during the protohistoric and contact periods, as this paper demonstrates through its analysis of Old World infectious diseases in the Plateau. We can begin to do this by looking closely at the political and cultural understanding that the recorders of these early accounts held, as well as learning to read “between” (and perhaps above and below) the lines in these early ethnographic records for what may have been omitted or distorted. Furthermore, and more importantly, we should begin to view oral histories as containing large amounts of true historical knowledge that can lead to a greater understanding of the past. Questions that are particularly relevant as an outcome of this paper and its analysis of the possibility of Old World infectious diseases reaching the Plateau region during the protohistoric are: How and why did the Shoshone lose much of their dominance in the horse trade to the Nez Perce in the 1700s? Can we begin to look at and understand many of the protohistoric territory expansions that took place such as that of the Blackfoot (Stern 1998), Cree (Bishop 1981), and others. Similarly, can we explain many of the prophetic religious movements such as the Prophet Dance (Walker 1969, 1998b), the Dreamer Cult (Raufer 1966), and other nativistic movements being partially a result of the introduction of Old World infectious diseases during the protohistoric as Walker (1969, 1998a) originally suggested? Sprague (1967, 2000a, 2000b) has done considerable work on Plateau style burial practices, and has noted a shift in position, grave goods, and body direction during the protohistoric. These changes have been attributed to Euroamerican influences (Walker and Sprague 1998), very possibly as a result of Old World infectious diseases. What other aspects of material culture routinely interpreted by archaeologists may be a result of pre-contact European effects? This paper begins to open the discourse on re-evaluating what is known of the protohistoric for the Plateau culture area in North America, and lays some of the groundwork for beginning to understand what has led to our current understanding, depiction, and conception of American Indians during the historic period, and hopefully as a result, this process will begin.

[p. 16]

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