“Let those I serve express their thanks
according
to their own upbringing and honor.”
-Ohiyesa
Unintentional
and intentional acts of genocide against the Indian people continued after the
Declaration of Inde-pendence was signed in the effort to accomplish the goal of
taking care of the “Indian problem.” In 1763, the British provided the Odawa
Indians gifts consisting of little insulated metal boxes. During the time the
bio-warfare occurred, the Odawa were on a peace mission returning British
soldiers safely to the British settlement in Montreal. The British instructed them to not open the metal boxes until the
Odawa returned from Montreal to their village near present day Harbor Springs,
Michigan. Once the metal boxes were opened, the smallpox virus ran rampant
amongst the Odawa people. Thousands lost their lives to the dreadful virus. The
smallpox massacre was remembered in legends passed down for generations with
the Odawa people. Pontiac’s rebellion, and the actions of few British officers
are linked to the rationale and cause behind the bio-warfare inflicted against
the unsuspecting Odawa people in 1763.
Smallpox
was used in biological warfare against a segment of the population unprepared
to fight off its lethal properties. Once smallpox finds a host in a community,
it can spread rapidly. There are two types of the smallpox virus: variola major
and variola minor. Variola major was the most severe and the most common form
which had a death rate of 30%. The strain of variola minor has a death rate of
1%. Between 1940 and 1970 there was a widespread vaccination to prevent the
disease. The World Health Organization declared smallpox to be eradicated. The
smallpox virus emerged in human populations thousands of years ago.
The
smallpox virus can be spread from person to person by simply breathing in
airborne respiratory droplets from a contaminated person. It can also be spread
by touching the skin rash, sores and scabs of an infected person, being exposed
to cadavers who died from it or by sharing blankets, clothing, and towels. Smallpox
is a highly contagious disease. The only way to prevent the disease from
spreading during the 1700s was by either burning or burying the deceased along
with their clothing and blankets.
The infection of the virus begins
after an incubation period of approximately 12 to 14 days. During the incu-bation
period, people do not experience any symptoms and they are not contagious at
all. The first sign of this disease is referred to as the prodromal phase,
which lasts two to four days and the symptoms during this phase are: fever,
severe headache, nausea and vomiting, aching body, and sore throat. People may
be contagious during this stage. The prodromal stage may last up to 20 days or
longer. The most contagious stage is during the early rash period, which lasts
about four days.
During the prodromal stage, small
red spots appear on a person’s tongue and in the mouth which turn into sores
containing the virus. The rash spreads on a person’s face, arms, legs, and feet
and to all parts of the body within 24 hours. The rash will become raised bumps
and these bumps will become fluid filled. A fever will reoccur and will remain
high until scabs form. Again, this is when the infected person is the most
contagious especially when the mouth sores break open and fill the mouth and
throat with the variola virus.
Which further complicates this virus
are some of the other life threatening and extremely problematic symptoms such
as bronchopneumonia, arthritis, serious eye problems, and osteomyelitis. The
eye problems include corneal ulcer-ation and blindness. Osteomyelitis is referred to as an infection in a bone and this
infection can reach a bone by traveling through the bloodstream or spreading
from nearby tissue. Once considered an incurable condition, osteo-myelitis can
be successfully treated today. Most people require surgery to remove parts of
the bone that have died which is followed by strong antibiotics, often
delivered intravenously, typically for at least six weeks. Oftentimes, when a
person became infected with the smallpox virus the end result was either
blindness or death. [i]
The Odawa people were not completely
exterminated or moved to another part of the country like many other tribes.
Andrew Jackson tried to move many Native American people west of the
Mississippi; part of the Odawa tribal people moved to Canada in protest.
Because many of the Odawa people were peace-loving and agrarian, they decided
to assimilate with the white settlers. They worked as lumbermen, shop keepers,
carpenters, and educators alongside the settlers and were part of the changing
economic environment.
At
the same time Chief Pontiac of the Odawa tribe from the Detroit area became
famous because of his role in Pontiac’s rebellion from 1763 to 1766. This
rebellion represented an American Indian struggle against the British military
efforts concerning the Great Lakes region which followed the British victory in
the French and Indian War. In July of 1763 Pontiac successfully defeated the
British at the Battle of Bloody Run. He was unable to capture the fort at
Detroit.
Other
Indian groups joined Pontiac’s rebellion against the British and these groups captured
eight forts in what are present-day Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and
Pennsylvania. They were crafty warriors with one thing in mind to abolish the
British by tricking the settlers and soldiers into allowing them to enter the
forts then they would capture and/or kill the residents.
At
the same time the Detroit Fort was under siege other tribal groups attacked and
took over Ft. Presque Isle, Ft. Le Boeuf, Ft. Venango, Ft. Miami, Ft. St.
Joseph, Ft. Ouilatenon, Fort Sandusky and Ft. Michilimackinac. Ft. Bedford, Ft.
Ligonier, Ft. Pitt and Ft. Niagara were assaulted but not taken. These attacks
on the British forts may have led to much of the animosity of the British
towards the Indian people.
The
British government made Pontiac part of their ambassadorial strategy. Peace
negotiations occurred in July of 1766 in which Pontiac made peace with the
British Superintendent of Indian Affairs, Sir William Johnston.
Sir
Jeffery Amherst served as a British officer in the British Army. He was
responsible for Britain’s successful war campaign at the New France territory
during the French and Indian War.
Because of this victory, Amherst was promoted to Commander-in-Chief of
the Forces; shortly after this appointment he was also promoted to General.
Amherst was noted for being a racist and he passed on his beliefs to those
under his command. He believed all Indian people were “savages,” undeserving of
living. One of Amherst’s goals was to annihilate the Indian people completely.
Amherst
was plotting to exterminate the Indian people at the same time the Odawa were
returning the British officers and soldiers. He was linked to giving the orders
to supply smallpox infected blankets to American Indians at Ft. Pitt. He
expressed his readiness to use any possible method to wipe out the Indian race
completely.
A
letter from Colonel Henry Bouquet to General Amherst dated July 13, 1763
suggests the distribution of blankets to exterminate the Indians. In another
letter dated July 16, 1763 from Amherst to Bouquet, Amherst gave approval of
supplying contaminated blankets and every other method to exterminate the
Indian people. [ii]
The Odawa Indians resided in various locations
stemming from Canada, lower Michigan, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and as
far as Oklahoma. Ancient birch bark scrolls indicated the Odawa from the
eastern areas of North America. The name Odawa is said to mean traders, buyers
and sellers. The Odawa were considered prominent leaders concerning the fur-trading
business. In the past, colonists in Quebec, then called Canada, referred to all
Algonquian tribal people from the Great Lakes as Odawa even if they were from
another tribe such as the Ojibwe tribe.
In
Michigan, the Odawa predominantly resided at L’Arbre. L’Arbre Croche literally
means “arbre,” a tree and “croche,” means crooked or hook like. Native
Americans would deform trees to serve as council trees and as marker trees.
Most of the trees used for this purpose were large maples and these deformed
trees were formerly used to guide Native Americans on the overland path from
Chicago to the Straits of Mackinac.
To
deform a tree, the center trunk is removed at a human’s shoulder height which
causes the surrounding branches to grow out in an inverted umbrella shape.
These trees can also be found in ancient sacred sites in New England.
The
Odawa settlement extended from Seven Mile Creek, which is seven miles north of
the present-day Harbor Springs, Michigan to present-day village of Cross
Village. In 1839, L’Arbre was known to be the second largest Indian settlement
in the region even after the smallpox attack of 1763.
[i] DermNet.
Retrieved on August 22, 2014 from http://www.demnetnz.org/viral/smallpox.html.
[ii] Native
Web. Jeffrey Amherst and Smallpox
Blankets: Lord Jeffrey Amherst’s letters discussin germ warfare against
American Indians. Retrieved on
January 11, 2014 from http://www.nativeweb.org/pages/legal/amherst/lorc.
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