Indian Blanket Diseases
Diseases brought by European settlers to the New World destroyed native populations. Many of the diseases, including smallpox, bubonic plague and cholera, once ravaged Europe, but Europeans eventually developed immunities to them. No such advantage existed among American Indians, who rapidly succumbed to the new viruses. Some of the diseases were spread by sharing blankets infected with microorganisms and disease-bearing fleas.
Smallpox
No disease was more widespread or destructive than smallpox, a virulent disease that killed more than 30 percent of all Indians infected, and might have wiped out whole populations, including the Taino of the Bahamas and Greater Antilles. Smallpox can live on blankets, clothes and dust for up to a year and once active among a tribe, could continue to attack it for a century or more.
Smallpox was introduced to the Americas throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. It was first recorded in 1507 on the island of Hispaniola, which is the home today of the nations of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Spanish explorer Hermán Cortés likely introduced it to the Aztecs in 1520. It spread so rapidly that it allowed Cortés and his band of 600 conquistadors, with help from Aztec enemies, to overthrow an empire of millions. Pilgrims landing in Massachusetts spread smallpox to local tribes, and by the middle of the 18th century, it had reached the American West.
Smallpox was likely spread by accident and design. Letters from British Gen. Jeffrey Amherst reveal a desire to use smallpox as a weapon to end Pontiac's Rebellion in 1763 by giving the Ottawa tribe infected blankets to wipe them out. It also arrived in the infected goods of traders and missionaries.
Indian medical practices, particularly sweat lodges and cold-water baths, made the disease worse by spreading the sores and weakening the immune system. Sioux warriors who raided infected enemy tribes likely brought smallpox back with them.
Bubonic Plague
The second most deadly disease brought to the Americas was plague. New England was ravaged by plague between 1616-19. This period is known as the Great Dying as 75 percent of the Wabanaki Confederation succumbed to the plague. As the Wabanaki Confederation pushed inland to escape the devastation, European settlers took over the New England coast.
The Navajo tribe of the American Southwest faced similar devastation from plague in the late 17th century following contact with Spanish traders.
Other Diseases
Blankets likely spread other diseases, even if not always as deadly as smallpox or bubonic plague. Among the other illnesses brought to the New World by Europeans are measles, mumps, scarlet fever, typhus, diphtheria and cholera.
African Diseases
Not all viruses came from Europe. Imported African slaves also brought deadly diseases, including malaria and yellow fever. Yellow fever was particularly transferable through the exchange of blankets and other goods.
Aftermath
While blanket-spread illnesses were not the only causes of Native American depopulation, they were a significant factor. There were between 5 million and 10 million Indians living in North America when Europeans first arrived. By 1900, only 250,000 remained. Disfiguring diseases such as smallpox inspired Christian missionaries, who saw sickness as the work of the devil, to increase their efforts to win converts. Some Indians tribes ceased contact with Europeans because they suspected the settlers caused these terrible afflictions.
