Lecture 2 Outline
From Smallpox to Dutch Elm Disease – An ecological history of colonization
Discussion topics from last week’s reading from Fire, Native Peoples, and the Natural Landscape.
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Should the Skull Valley Goshutes be allowed to store spent nuclear fuel on their lands?
Which view of the Pre-Columbian North American landscape was more familiar to you “pristine” or
“humanized” (i.e. from previous studies, the media, etc.)?
Does the idealized image of the Indian as the primitive antidote to modern man have any value?
“The Columbian Exchange”– Contact brought a fundamental change to ecological state of North America.
Humans, animals and plants (and agriculture) all experienced great changes. For the most part, stunning
success for Old World coupled with inundation of New World species/variants. What is the reason for this
stunning success? Alfred Crosby – “Why does the sun never set on the empire of the dandelion?” Why do
people of European descent live in such oddly named places as Saskatoon?
Isolation theory—Pangaea separates 200 million years ago. For plants and animals genetic changes shift from
centrifugal forces to centripetal, importantly. First humans arrive on continent via Bering land bridge, then
glaciers melt 10,000 years ago and human genetic drift begins. Neolithic Revolution in the Old World; New
World lags behind. Old World settings made pre-historic man a hardy type with a strong immune system. New
World man may have been disease-free from the onset. Columbian contact represented a reconnect of two
peoples on opposite sides of the Neolithic Revolution, separated by time and geography.
Diseases—Germs not imperialism doomed the Indian; slaveholders do not kill their own property. McNeil’s
Law: why do civilized peoples tend to ultimately conquer isolated peoples with ease? Smallpox a recurring
scourge throughout Europe hundreds of years before Contact. In N. America by 1640s, Smallpox spreads to
West Coast by late 18th century. Smallpox one of many: yellow fever, measles etc. Low population densities
meant diseases were epidemic and did not become endemic, little chance to develop immunity in such
settings. One generation of isolation from a disease enough to result in loss of immunity for colonists, Indians
isolated for perhaps 1000 generations. Estimates of mortality rates vary but must have been dramatic. Disease
may explain much of the early “empty continent” attestations.
Plants and animals—European plants and animals succeed stunningly in Americas. Nettles and dandelions,
peaches and grasses. “White man’s footsteps” – common plantain. “English grass” and “Kentucky Bluegrass”.
Why? Geography, history and ecology. The “winners” were plants well suited to living in a highly humanized
environment. Disturbance, particularly in the form of non-native animals, is key. Cattle, sheep, goats and pigs –
Euro variants adapted to thriving on whatever humans cannot thrive on – changed N. American landscape and
created the preferred habitat for winner plants. Human propensity towards transporting favored landscapes
also a factor. A “world-altering avalanche”, but only in certain settings: in tropic zones, for example, the
avalanche was more of a trickle. A mixture of human disease resistance and technology (primarily agricultural)
plus specialized Old World plants and animals seen as the underlying reason. Virgin territory thesis also a
factor, as well as Pleistocene extinction lack of comparable competitors for Euro-animals and plants. Highlights
interdependency of humans and nature and human’s ability to mold landscapes, often with unforeseeable
results.
North America gets the short end of the stick – syphilis, gray squirrels are no comparison to smallpox and the
starling.
The Passenger Pigeon and the European Starling – in mid-19th century the passenger pigeon (Ectopistes
migratorius) super abundant species in NA. Some flocks estimated to exceed 3 billion birds. In 1910 last
individual dies in captivity. Hunting, while wide-scale, not a decisive factor: seemingly minor (anthropogenic)
habitat change the culprit. The European starling – in 1890 a few dozen starlings (Sturnus vulgaris,
“kottarainen”) released in New York City by the American Acclimatization Society. Today, some 200 million
starlings in N. America, to detriment of native species. Good example of how certain species thrive in highly
humanized environments, and how others suffer even from seemingly minor habitat disturbance.
The Ivory-Billed Woodpecker – complex interplay between native–non-native forces lead to extinction(?).
Habitant bottomland hardwood forests, Ivory-billed woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) requires dead or
decaying trees. Native forest uses and hunting practices likely resulted in low-scale pressure on populations, or
possibly even aided populations via pyrogenic habitat creation. Natives did, however, hunt and commodify
birds. Contact brings changes – farming, logging and competition – that diminish habitant and numbers. Final
push to extinction – modern logging and, paradoxically, ornithologists (who also “commodified” the birds). De
facto extinct by 1930s, but recent alleged sightings have brought hope that species still survives.
Dutch Elm Disease – a modern example of plant pathology and the virgin territory thesis. Beetle-borne fungus
culprit for demise of American elm (Ulmus Americana). Perennial tree disease in Old World – many cyclic
episodes theorized. Disease first attested in New England 1928. Moving steadily west towards extended rage of
American elm. Detroit example – disease first noted in 1950, city had planted 400,000 elm trees. Efforts to
stave off DED with pesticides (DDT and Methoxyclor) fail. By late 1970s 80% of elms in Detroit dead – cityscape
transformed. DED and similar instances help fuel the apocalyptic ‘death of nature’ politics of the 1960s. DED
highlights the temporary plusses and inevitable minuses of utilizing species in virgin territory, and how humans
act as disease vectors for plants and how transported landscapes are inevitably only temporary boons.
Selected Reading:
“Home in the Big Forest”; Decline of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker in Its Habitat in the United States” by Mikko
Saikku, in Encountering the Past in Nature, (eds) Myllytaus &Saikku (2001)
Suggested Musical Interlude:
The Secret Life of Plants by Stevie Wonder
(Nothing but) Flowers by Talking Heads
AvP13
Andrew Pattison
Oulu University
Focus Areas in North American History 682373A
Pattison