Event

Smallpox at Fort Clark, 1837

The 1837 smallpox epidemic on the upper Missouri, which killed about nine in ten Mandans.

9 links, 4 backed by primary records

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Dates: Jun–Oct 1837

Connections 9

involved

Steamboat St. Peters docked at Fort Clark on 19 June 1837 carrying passengers infected with smallpox Scholarship & press 1
Fort Clark trading post beside the Mandan village; about 2,000 Mandans lived in the Knife River villages in spring 1837 and 138 remained by October Scholarship & press 2
American Fur Company (Missouri branch) the Missouri branch, owned since 1834 by Pratte, Chouteau & Company, operated the steamboat; its captain refused to put a sick crewman ashore Primary record 3
Francis Chardon reported on 5 August 1837 that the Gros Ventre blamed the steamboat for the smallpox; the committee reproduces the entry, and a speech attributed to Four Bears whose authenticity has been questioned Primary record 3
United States government its Secretary of War excluded the Mandan from the 1832 vaccination program, per the Colorado committee citing Pearson; an Indian agent on the boat urged that the sick man be put ashore, and left the boat on 5 June Primary record 3

followed from

Old World diseases in the Americas Scholarship & press 1

appears in

Chardon's Journal at Fort Clark, 1834–1839 Scholarship & press 2
Genocide and American Indian History Scholarship & press 4
A charge made by some writers; the University of Colorado's 2006 committee found some basis for its general claim in early accounts and oral traditions, and none for several details.
University of Colorado investigative committee report on Ward Churchill, 2006 Primary record 3
The committee said it was making no judgment on his broader historical claims. It found some basis for the general claim in early accounts and oral traditions, no evidence for several details, and misconduct in how he supported it. It also concluded that the Secretary of War excluded the Mandan and the upper Missouri tribes from the 1832 vaccination program.

Timeline 1 date

Jun–Oct 1837 Smallpox at Fort Clark, 1837

Proof 4 sources

Fort Clark State Historic Site: history, State Historical Society of North Dakota. Scholarship & press
On June 19, 1837, the steamboat St. Peters docked at Fort Clark carrying passengers infected with smallpox. Soon the disease swept through the Mandan village, killing about 90 percent of the inhabitants.
Although steamboat traffic was important in transporting goods and visitors to the site, it also brought disease.
Section 3: Smallpox Epidemic of 1837, with excerpts from Chardon's journal, North Dakota Studies, State of North Dakota. Scholarship & press
About 2,000 Mandans lived in the Knife River villages in the spring of 1837. By October, 138 people remained alive.
A young Mandan died to day of the Small Pox — several others has caught it
Report of the Investigative Committee of the Standing Committee on Research Misconduct at the University of Colorado at Boulder concerning Allegations of Academic Misconduct against Professor Ward Churchill, University of Colorado Boulder, 16 May 2006. Primary record Archived copy
which operated the boat. Among the passengers on the St. Peter’s in 1837 were two agents of the U.S. Office (or Bureau) of Indian Affairs
Pratte, Chouteau & Company, which had bought the Missouri branch of the American Fur Company from John Jacob Astor in 1834
They swear vengence against all the Whites, as they say the small pox was brought here by the S[team] B[oat].
One of the Indian agents on the boat encouraged the captain, Bernard Pratte, Jr., to put the sick man ashore at Leavenworth, but he refused to do so.
When the St. Peter’s arrived at the Sioux Agency south of Fort Pierre on June 5, Pilcher left the boat
the U.S. Secretary of War deliberately and reprehensibly excluded the Mandan and all other tribes of the upper Missouri River from the Indian vaccination program of 1832.
We do not find academic misconduct with respect to his general claim that the U.S. Army deliberately spread smallpox to Mandan Indians at Fort Clark in 1837, using infected blankets.
Early accounts of what was said by Indians involved in that situation and certain native oral traditions provide some basis for that interpretation.
That infected blankets were taken from a military infirmary in St. Louis.
Pearson describes the measure passed by Congress on May 5, 1832 ordering vaccination of Indian tribes.
We therefore find by a preponderance of the evidence a pattern of deliberate academic misconduct involving falsification, fabrication, and serious deviation from accepted practices in reporting results from research.
Genocide and American Indian History, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History, 2 Mar 2015. Scholarship & press Archived copy
The most frequent charge is that the army or fur traders distributed smallpox blankets to Indians on the upper Missouri River in 1837.
Though scholars have generally accepted evidence of an intention to engage in biological warfare for the Amherst case, they have not for the outbreak of smallpox on the upper Missouri.

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