'In Want of Nourishment for to Keep Them Alive': Climate Fluctuations, Bison Scarcity, and the Smallpox Epidemic of 1780-82 on the Northern Great Plains

摘要

Native American groups sustained appalling population losses when smallpox swept the northern Great Plains from 1780 to 1782. Although the epidemic struck the semiseden tary villagers of the upper Missouri the hardest, it also ravaged migratory bison-hunting societies that were theor etically less prone to sustaining such heavy losses to Old World infectious diseases. This study asks why smallpox spread so widely among the migratory tribes and why it proved to be so virulent. Multiple lines of evidence suggest that climate fluctuations affected the productivity of the grasslands, affecting bison migration patterns and Native subsistence. Food shortages and resulting starvation facili tated the spread of smallpox and exacerbated the disease's effects on individuals and populations. This study highlights the environmental and cultural complexity of infectious disease epidemics.