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Native American disease and epidemics pervade many aspects of Native American life, both throughout history and in the present day. Diseases and epidemics can be chronicled from centuries ago when European settlers brought diseases that devastated entire tribes to the modern day when Native Americans face serious struggles with particular diseases. The current crises in diseases and epidemics are addressed by many different groups, both governmental and independent, through a multitude of programs. ==European Contact== The arrival of Europeans ushered in what is termed the Columbian Exchange. During this period European settlers brought many different technologies and lifestyles with them; arguably the most harmful effect of this exchange was the arrival and spread of disease. Native Americans, due to the lack of prior contact with Europeans, had not previously been exposed to the diseases that were prevalent on the distant continent. Therefore, they had not built up internal immunities to the diseases or formed any medicines to combat them. Europeans came into the New World bearing various diseases. Those infected with diseases either possessed them in a dormant state or were not quarantined in such a way that distanced them enough from Native Americans not to spread the diseases, allowing them to spread into epidemics.〔 The diseases brought by Europeans are not easily tracked, since there were numerous outbreaks and all were not equally recorded. The most notable disease brought by Europeans was smallpox. The Lakota Indians called the disease the running face sickness. Smallpox was lethal to many Native Americans, bringing sweeping epidemics and affecting the same tribes repeatedly. In the summer of 1639, a smallpox epidemic struck the Huron natives in the St. Lawrence and Great Lakes regions. The disease had reached the Huron tribes through traders returning from Québec and remained in the region throughout the winter. When the epidemic was over, the Huron population had been reduced to roughly 9000 people, about half of what it had been before 1634.〔Bruce Trigger. Natives and Newcomers: Canada’s “Heroic Age” Reconsidered. (Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1985), 588-589.〕 Between 1837 and 1870, at least four different epidemics struck the Plains tribes. When the plains Indians began to learn of the "white man’s diseases", they intentionally avoided contact with them and their trade goods. But many tribes were enamored with things like metal pots, skillets and knives, and they traded with the white newcomer anyway, inadvertently spreading diseases to their villages.〔 Numerous other diseases were brought to North America, including measles, scarlet fever, typhoid, typhus, influenza, pertussis (whooping cough), tuberculosis, cholera, diphtheria, chickenpox and sexually transmitted diseases.〔 Each of these brought destruction through sweeping epidemics, involving illness and extensive deaths. Many Native American tribes experienced great depopulation, averaging 25–50 percent of the tribes members lost to disease. Additionally, smaller tribes neared extinction after facing severely a destructive spread of disease.〔 The significant toll that this took is expounded upon in the article Population history of indigenous peoples of the Americas. A specific example was Cortes' invasion of Mexico. Before his arrival, the Mexican population is estimated to have been around 25 to 30 million. Fifty years later, the Mexican population was reduced to 3 million, mainly by infectious disease. This shows the main effect of the arrival of Europeans in the new world. With no natural immunity against these pathogens, native Americans died in huge numbers. The eminent Yale historian David Brion Davis describes this as "the greatest genocide in the history of man. Yet it's increasingly clear that most of the carnage had nothing to do with European barbarism. The worst of the suffering was caused not by swords or guns but by germs”. Certain cultural and biological traits made Native Americans more susceptible to these diseases. Emphasis placed on visiting the sick led to the spread of disease through consistent contact. Smallpox specifically led indirectly to higher rates of suicide. Many Native American tribes prided themselves in their appearance, and the resulting skin disfigurement of smallpox deeply affected them psychologically. Unable to cope with this psychological development, tribe members were said to have committed suicide. Native Americans first exposed to these diseases also had a unique approach to illness, relating primarily to religious beliefs. There is the belief that disease is caused by either a lack of charm use, an intrusion of an object by means of sorcery, or the free soul's absence from the body. Disease was understood to enter the body if one is not protected by the spirits, as it is a natural occurrence. Religious powers were believed to be related to curing diseases as well. Native American illness has been treated through the practice of shamanism in the past, though this decreased as the influence of Europeans increased. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Native American disease and epidemics」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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