Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Vectors of Colonialism: The Smallpox Epidemic of 1780-82 and Northern Great Plains Indian Life

Hodge, Adam R.

Abstract Details

2009, MA, Kent State University, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of History.
While scholars have devoted significant attention to the various waves of diseases that swept through the northern Great Plains during the nineteenth century, the great predecessor to those outbreaks, the 1780-82 smallpox epidemic, remains largely neglected. This thesis attempts to fill this major gap in the historiography by conducting an in-depth analysis of that earlier epidemic, informed by the approaches of environmental history and ethnohistory. Utilizing these methods, this work first traces the development of the northern plains disease ecology, demonstrating how the introduction of European colonial goods, primarily the horse and the gun, brought natives into more frequent and sustained contact with one another through trade and warfare. Then, this thesis discusses the immediate impact of the epidemic, revealing how its tremendous mortality irrevocably changed the world that its Indian survivors inhabited by altering the social, cultural, and political spheres of their lives. Next, this study asserts that since the epidemic left most northern plains peoples vulnerable to less-afflicted enemies during the decades following the epidemic, regional warfare patterns forever transformed. At the same time, the epidemic forged the regional power structure that the United States encountered when Lewis and Clark explored the newly-acquired territory during the first decade of the nineteenth century. In short, this thesis concludes that smallpox epidemic of 1780-82 constituted a major turning point in northern Great Plains history. Furthermore, it influenced the course of United States history by affecting the ability of the region’s indigenous peoples to resist American colonialism.
Kevin Adams, Dr (Advisor)
Kim Gruenwald, Dr (Committee Member)
Leonne Hudson, Dr (Committee Member)
203 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Hodge, A. R. (2009). Vectors of Colonialism: The Smallpox Epidemic of 1780-82 and Northern Great Plains Indian Life [Master's thesis, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1239393701

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Hodge, Adam. Vectors of Colonialism: The Smallpox Epidemic of 1780-82 and Northern Great Plains Indian Life. 2009. Kent State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1239393701.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Hodge, Adam. "Vectors of Colonialism: The Smallpox Epidemic of 1780-82 and Northern Great Plains Indian Life." Master's thesis, Kent State University, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1239393701

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)