Illustration of Squanto teaching the Pilgrims how to plant corn with fish. Image from Wikipedia
Researcher Ann Tweedy argues that warfare -- not disease imported by European settlers -- was the real cause for genocide among tribes in New England:
The accepted story of how the English settled New England begins with a virgin soil epidemic destroying 90 to 95 percent of the native population. The range of this plague is very specific, between the Saco River (present day Maine) and southeastern Massachusetts and Cape Cod. This natural cause of death is supported by historians and popular writers, like Jared Diamond (Guns, Germs and Steel), as well as the medical community, which has suggested viral and bacterial agents over the years, from infectious hepatitis and smallpox to a more recent hypothesis published on the CDC website involving leptospirosis. This most recent hypotheses maintains that rats from European ships may have harbored a spirochete bacteria that contaminated stored food and potable water sources. The published report states, “the Indian lifestyle, which included constant exposure to rodents and their excreta on land and in water, exposed them to the leptospiral life cycle. Bare feet were common in and around houses.” This is a myopic and biased view of indigenous lifestyles. The majority of these cultures were agricultural and food safety was of prime importance both for sustenance and as trade items. The authors of this article don’t consider that in the accepted years of this plague, these coastal communities are documented as preventing prolonged contact with any European due to years of kidnappings. Modern belief in virgin soil epidemics mimic the fait accompli attitude of the English colonists who believed the plague was a sign that God intended his righteous people to prosper. Yet, a critical evaluation of the details of this population reduction, including timing and location, and accounts and behaviors of native survivors combined with a better understanding of the various European explorers and traders from competing countries and with separate agendas, might yield other hypotheses. A better investigation of this perception of obliterated cultures can be revealed if we consider these people as intelligent and discerning and striving to navigate a complicated situation with imbalanced native trade networks and increased European presence of explorers and colonizers. Europeans never observed permanent settlement in one location by North American indigenous people but rather multiple dwellings based on seasons. English and French visitors to the region consistently remark on the vigorous health of the encountered people. They were not so weak that they were afflicted immediately by European pathogens because prior exposure to fishing, trading and exploration voyages hadn’t reduced populations. More importantly, those kidnapped individuals such as Squanto and the Nope (Martha’s Vineyard) sachem Epenow and several others from what is now Maine, all survived the ground zero exposure to pathogens in England while being stressed and enduring poor nutrition and returned in good health.Get the Story:
Ann Tweedy: The Politics of Plague (Indian Country Today 7/20)
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