Tag Archives: smallpox prevention poster

Other Ills at the Asylum

Blankets Infected With Smallpox Were Distributed to Native Americans to Start an Epidemic, courtesy sphtc.org

Blankets Infected With Smallpox Were Distributed to Native Americans to Start an Epidemic, courtesy sphtc.org

Though there is no mention of any smallpox epidemics at the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians, the threat of this terrible disease was very real. Smallpox had devastated Native American communities once Europeans arrived, since native peoples had no immunity to a disease they had never encountered. Mortality estimates range from 50% for the Cherokee, Catawba, and Huron, and as high as 90% for the Mandan after first contact.

Native Americans did not immediately connect smallpox to the Europeans who brought it. Plains tribes thought the disease was the Bad Spirit appearing, while the Creeks and Cherokees thought it came to them because they had violated tribal laws. Missionaries and Jesuits were later blamed for smallpox because of their religious paraphernalia and concern about dying, and they may well have carried infection to the various peoples they visited in the course of their work.

By the early 1900s, Native Americans were well aware that Europeans had brought this tremendous disaster with them. In 1914, Dr. Harry Hummer vaccinated 48 patients and five employees against smallpox. (Another five employees had previously contracted smallpox, and 13 refused the vaccination.) Hummer askedĀ  the Commissioner of Indian Affairs what he should do about the employees who had refused the vaccine, and he had a right to be concerned. Considering the frail health that many of his patients endured, smallpox would have been an overwhelming illness for them to fight.

Smallpox Prevention Poster Distributed by the Minnesota Department of Health, circa 1924

Smallpox Prevention Poster Distributed by the Minnesota Department of Health, circa 1924

A Navajo Hogan is Burned After Occupation by a Smallpox Victim, Leupp Indian Reservation, circa 1890 to 1910, courtesy National Library of Medicine

A Navajo Hogan is Burned After Occupation by a Smallpox Victim, Leupp Indian Reservation, circa 1890 to 1910, courtesy National Library of Medicine

Precedent for Asylum Care

Smallpox Prevention Poster Distributed by the Minnesota Department of Health, circa 1924

Smallpox Prevention Poster Distributed by the Minnesota Department of Health, circa 1924

In its treaties, the federal government routinely promised many material goods to Native Americans, as well as less tangible goods such as health care and education. Much of the government’s early health care consisted more of record-keeping than anything else: what illnesses were striking Indians in what regions, how many had died, and from what causes? Often, the precipitating factor for providing even minimal health care stemmed from concern for whites: when epidemics (like smallpox) among Indians threatened to spill over into white settlements, federal doctors often gave vaccines and provided what preventative care was available to native populations. Civilian physicians and missionaries sometimes took up the slack, but health care was primarily a federal obligation.

Though that medical care was inadequate in the extreme, the moral obligation to provide it was clear. In 1831, the Supreme Court had described the federal government’s responsibility to Indians when Chief Justice John Marshall wrote: “Their (Native American) relation to the United States resembles that of a ward to his guardian.”

Though many argued over it at the time, the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians did not represent anything outside the bounds of what the government might have been expected to provide. Clearly, provision for mental health fell under a guardian/ward relationship just as physical care did. The problem lay in whether or not a separate facility only for Indians was the answer. For the patients who traveled hundreds of miles to the asylum when they might otherwise have been admitted to a closer state hospital, the answer would probably be a resounding “No!”

Medicine Man Outside His Tepee, 19th Century, courtesy National Institutes of Health

Medicine Man Outside His Tepee, 19th Century, courtesy National Institutes of Health

 

Medicine Lodge on the White Earth Reservation, Date Unknown

Medicine Lodge on the White Earth Reservation, Date Unknown