Native account of the first smallpox epidemic

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:01]Hello there.

[00:00:02]Today, I want to read an indigenous account of the first wave smallpox epidemic. This isn't going to be a fun read. It's a little bit grim and morbid, but I think it's quite interesting regardless.

[00:00:12]This is an excerpt from the account of Saukamappee, part of David Thompson's narrative. After which, I want to talk about a couple of things of particular interest.

[00:00:21]The necessary context for this story is that they're at war with the Snake Indians.

[00:00:27]We begin.

[00:00:29]Next morning at the dawn of the day, we attacked the tents and with our sharp flat daggers and knives cut through the tents and entered for the fight.

[00:00:37]But our war whoop instantly stopped. Our eyes were appalled with terror. There was no one to fight with but the dead and the dying, each a mass of corruption.

[00:00:46]We did not touch them, but left the tents and held a small council on what was to be done.

[00:00:51]We all thought the bad spirit had made himself master of the camp and destroyed them. It was agreed to take some of the best of the tents and any other plunder that was clean and good, which we did, and also took away the few horses they had and returned to our camp. The second day after this dreadful disease broke out in our camp and spread from one tent to another as if the bad spirit carried it.

[00:01:12]We had no more belief that one man could give it to another any more than a wounded man could give his wound to another.

[00:01:18]We did not suffer so much as those who were near the river, into which they rushed and died. We had only a little brook and about 1/3 of us died.

[00:01:26]But in some of the other camps, there were tents in which everyone died.

[00:01:30]When at length it left us and we moved about to find our people, it was no longer with the song and the dance, but with tears, shrieks, and howlings of despair for those who would never return to us.

[00:01:41]War was no longer thought of, and we had enough to do to hunt and make provision for our families, for in our sickness we had consumed all of our dried provisions. But the bisons and red deer were also gone. We did not see one half of what was before. Whither they had gone we could not We believed the good spirit had forsaken us and allowed the bad spirit to become our master.

[00:02:02]What little we could spare we offered to the bad spirit to let us alone and go to our enemies. To the good spirit we offered feathers, branches of trees, and sweet-smelling grass.

[00:02:12]Our hearts were low and dejected and we shall never again be the same people.

[00:02:17]To hunt for our families was our sole occupation and kill beavers, wolves, and foxes to trade for our necessities and we thought of war no more.

[00:02:24]And perhaps we would have made peace with them for they had suffered dreadfully as well as us and had left all this fine country of the Bow River to us.

[00:02:33]I regularly come back to this account of Saukamappee, presumably for the same reason that David Thompson included it in his narrative. It's very interesting. It's rare enough that we find an indigenous voice among the miscellanea of history, much less one who remembers the pre-contact world and lived through all of the major changes.

[00:02:54]I think this account is also pretty reliable as an authentic indigenous voice. There are a lot of odd little details throughout the account that I don't imagine Thompson making up on his own.

[00:03:04]Additionally, the account is sort of rambling and a little bit incoherent at times, kind of like an old man telling you his life story. If Thompson was to make this up on his own, I think it would be structured better.

[00:03:16]Okay, let's get into it. So, the main thing I want to talk about here, the main thing that's of interest to me is the death rate that he reports.

[00:03:24]Almost everywhere else you look, the first wave of smallpox epidemic has aggravating coincidental circumstances.

[00:03:30]And so, it's really hard to get a clear picture of the actual death statistics.

[00:03:34]How do you count disease-related deaths when at the same time you've got Spaniards and Puritans gunning people down and enslaving them? The dust settles, you look around, well, 90% of them are gone. That must have been a really bad disease.

[00:03:46]Here, there are no aggravating circumstances. The area wasn't colonized yet and their native enemies fell sick at the same time. Saukamappee reports that about 1/3 of them died. I trust this number. Living in a community, you're going to know how many people are missing from it much better than some explorer who comes in and gives sort of a vibes-based count. This is a far cry from the 95% statistic that pop culture continually cites. I'm going to have to talk about that at some point. This 1/3 statistic is completely unremarkable. In Europe at the time with the best treatment available, smallpox had about a 1 in 5 death rate. So, the disparity is only about 13%. A chunk of that disparity has to come from the fact that there's nobody around to provide treatment and care if everybody falls sick at once.

[00:04:34]Another chunk could maybe be attributed to malnutrition. He describes that they've consumed all of their dried provisions by the time they're better.

[00:04:41]And yeah, if everybody falls sick all at once, there's obviously not going to be anybody to hunt and cook.

[00:04:46]So, how much of that disparity remains for the no natural immunity crowd to hide behind?

[00:04:51]Just seems a little strange to me.

[00:04:54]The other thing that's of interest to me is this reference to creeks. We did not suffer so much as those that were near the river into which they rushed and died. We had only a little brook and about 1/3 of us died. The first time I read this, I interpreted it as sort of a metaphor, but it's not. It's meant to be taken literally.

[00:05:11]David Thompson talks about this elsewhere in his narrative. Apparently, people would go mad with the fever from the smallpox and in an attempt to cool down, they'd rush into the river. Not realizing that they don't have their strength anymore, they'd be swept away by the current and drowned.

[00:05:26]Saukamappee's essentially saying, "We're lucky we only had a little creek that so many people drowned in the other village."

[00:05:32]And that's all I wanted to share. I hope you found this interesting. Thank you for listening.