Clark County history: Diseases decimated Native populations

By the time sailing ship Capt. Robert Gray named and claimed the Columbia River for the United States in 1792, European diseases already had decimated the Pacific Northwest Native American population. Later outbreaks — influenza (1836), malaria (1830s), measles (1830s and 1840s), smallpox (1781 to 1863) and shigellosis (1844) — killed more.

It’s estimated that diseases wiped out 90 percent of America’s Indigenous population. Diseases progressed along river trade routes. When Lewis and Clark traveled to the Pacific Ocean, they often used the phrase “destroyed by the Small Pox” when seeing empty villages. Native Americans were particularly susceptible to dying from European diseases, as they had developed no immunity to them.

During the summers of the mid-1970s, archaeologists uncovered the remains of several Hudson’s Bay Company buildings located southwest of Fort Vancouver on a slender land strip between the railroad tracks and state Highway 14. One was a hospital, likely to have been placed outside the fort and away from the Kanaka Village to protect company employees from contagious and epidemic diseases.

A Fort Vancouver physician, Dr. Forbes Barclay, noted around 1840 that a measles epidemic had infected Native Americans during the first quarter of the 19th century. In 1847-1849, another measles epidemic hit the Oregon Territory. The outbreak among the Cayuse people led to their attack on the Whitman Mission at Walla Walla, killing Dr. Marcus Whitman and others after the doctor failed to cure them of the plague.

Journals of overland travelers from Fort Nez Perce (Walla Walla) wrote they carried measles to Fort Vancouver, even mentioning measles cases along the trail between the Waiilatpu Mission and Fort Vancouver. Peter Skene Ogden wrote about settlers bringing other diseases, including “measles, dysentery and typhus fever, (and) cholera.” About the Native Americans, he said, “It would be impossible to form any idea of the Indian’s population. They were swept off by hundreds.”

At Fort Vancouver, measles killed 39 people between November 1847 and February 1848. The epidemic peaked right after Jan. 1, taking 11 victims, primarily Native Americans. The total included two Hawaiians. Seventeen lost were younger than 5, while 18 were ages 18-35, and three fatalities were older than 40 (41, 47 and 60). The Willamette Valley Native Americans retell at least five epidemic accounts. Their traditional disease treatments failed.

From Fort Vancouver, disease spread to the Hudson’s Bay Company farm on the Cowlitz River. George Roberts journaled about the epidemic there. Measles covered the community; by Dec. 17, 1847, 20 people were infected. A week later, Roberts mentioned the first measles fatality. Native Americans fell victim, creating a second infection wave. How far it spread is unclear, however. Roberts’ journal reports Native Americans were catching measles and “suffering extremely.” By Jan. 30, 1848, Roberts explained the increased measles infection among the settlers of the farming community. He last wrote about the epidemic on Feb. 21.

The waves of infection as it moved from one community to another were common in most places, like the company farm. Other diseases came with it or followed, although this didn’t happen at Fort Vancouver. Roberts mentions some on the farm showed symptoms of “camp fever” (typhus). Influenza followed, sweeping through the farm in mid-May.