Disease and Depopulation Among
Native Americans in New England
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Native Americans in New England
were powerful people estimated to
have a total population of up to 15
million inhabitants before European
contact; a 1990 U.S. census indicates
a total current population of less than
two million. What happened to these
people?
A great deal of the depopulation is
attributed to the diseases that
Europeans brought to the New World;
mass epidemics decimated or wiped
out whole tribes. Yet epidemics
throughout history have rarely
produced an irrecoverable effect. What
else could have happened to drive an
entire race to near extinction?
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Genetic Susceptibility
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Diseases such as typhoid, smallpox,
tuberculosis, and measles had never
been present in North America before
European contact and killed a majority
of the Natives that contracted them.
It is difficult to determine whether the
Natives had no immunity to the
diseases, which is a common
assumption, because there are no
pure DNA samples from the time to
test for the biological theories of
genetic homogeneity or compromised
immunity.
Unable to provide a full answer
scientifically, researchers look to
cultural factors to gauge their influence
on depopulation
Environmental and Social Factors
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Cultural changes after European
contact can also contribute to the
spread of disease
The introduction of domesticating
animals allowed for diseases to mutate
and be transmitted to humans
The spread of trade, in addition to
waves of settlers from many countries
also allowed more person to person
contact than previously seen
Increasing agriculture led to
deforestation, temperature changes,
and livestock overrunning crops
The Native Americans already
subsisted on a malnourishing diet,
these factors affected their ability to
sustain even that low level nutrition
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Health and Medical Practices
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Native Americans had no cures for
such unknown New World diseases
Natives in New England believed the
underlying causes of disease were
either supernatural or the result of
inappropriate behavior
Native American medicine of the time
involved a combination of religious
beliefs and traditional herbal medicine
Europeans, who appear to have
brought with them some level of
exposure and immunity, could also
offer no cures or medical explanations
to the Natives
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War and Religious Convictions
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Many colonists believed the Native
Americans were heathens who God
punished with disease for not being
Christian, and waged war on the
Natives
Native weapons such as hatchets and
bows were no match for European
rifles. Also, crucial to population,
Natives did not kill women and children
in war, which colonists did.
“The Indians in those parts had newly,
even about year or two before, been
visited with such a prodigious
pestilence, as carried away not a tenth
but nine parts of ten (yea, ‘tis said
nineteen of twenty) among them: so
that the woods were almost cleared of
those pernicious creatures, to make
room for a better growth.” – Cotton
Mather
Social Disorder
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The loss of the more susceptible
elderly and children to disease
devastated significant portions of the
population
Families were torn apart by death
through war and disease, making
population recovery difficult
Tribes lost leaders, as well as elderly,
who kept tribal wisdom, causing
cultural disorientation and power
struggles
Falling ill caused tribes to miss annual
hunting and planting cycles, and have
fewer contributing members of society
As vast numbers of Natives
succumbed to disease, it became
difficult for tribes to protest the swift
European expansion onto Native lands
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