Saturday, December 9, 2006

The biggest killer in the Southwest SMALLPOX

Paul Harden For El Defensor Chieftain

There are hundreds of books about the slaughter of people in the Southwest by the Apaches; those that fell from the outlaw's gun; in battles from the Mexican War to the Civil War; or those killed in the saddle during the cattle wars. All of these added together is still dwarfed by the biggest killer in the southwest: smallpox.

Considering the area of conquest by Spain, roughly from Guatemala to southern Colorado, smallpox did not claim hundreds of lives or even thousands — but millions.

What is smallpox?

Smallpox is a viral disease called poxvirus variola, or simply variola. Like measles, the disease produces pimple-like pustules on the skin, and often over the entire body. Unlike measles, smallpox continues into open, painful sores that can often lead to death. For those who survive, the pox leaves behind lifelong disfiguring pockmarks on the skin and face.

Once infected, smallpox can rage through the human body in as little as nine days; and for the unlucky ones, death comes a week or two later. It is an old disease, confirmed to have existed in China and India more than 3,000 years ago. Some scholars point to Exodus 9:10-11 in the Bible as describing smallpo: "So they took ashes from the kiln, and stood before Pharaoh, and Moses threw them toward heaven, and it became boils breaking out in sores on man and beast. And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils were upon the magicians and upon all the Egyptians."

For medical clarification, smallpox is strictly a human disease; the same disease in animals is a similar virus called "cowpox." Smallpox is a highly contagious disease, carried from human to human.

For centuries, people understood it was a contagious disease, but were helpless to halt it. No herb, medicine or concoction ever seemed to work. Finally around 1800, a British surgeon named Edward Jenner developed an effective vaccine by injecting the similar cowpox virus into his children, who survived the disease (but probably not the wrath of his wife!). Not only did Dr. Jenner invent the cure for smallpox, he also invented the word "vaccination"; "vacca" meaning cow in Latin.

Most older adults today are very familiar with smallpox.

As children, we learned the perils of the dreaded disease and were all immunized at a young age. Every time a child broke out with pustules, parents feared it might be smallpox instead of measles. Adults who are now 45 years old or older still carry the distinctive "mark" on their upper arm from the smallpox inoculation.

During the 1960s and '70s, there was a worldwide campaign to inoculate the entire human race against smallpox. The last known case of the disease was that of a young girl in Somalia in 1977. In 1980, the World Health Organization declared the disease that plagued the human race for 3,000 years to be finally eradicated

As a result, most people today under 45 years of age have scarcely heard of the disease, or had the pleasure of the multi-prick (and often painful) smallpox inoculation. By the next generation or two, smallpox will be completely forgotten.

Although the eradication of the disease is one of the true successes of modern medicine, let not its toll on the human race, and New Mexico, be forgotten.

Smallpox in the New World

Smallpox appeared in the New World at the very moment the first Spaniards arrived. Establishing sugar cane plantations on Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic in 1509, native people were used as laborers and slaves. By 1518, the entire population of 2.5 million native islanders had perished from smallpox and other diseases. Afterward, African slaves were brought in to work the highly profitable plantations, a practice that continued for three more centuries throughout the Caribbean Islands and America. It can be said that the slave trade in the Americas was caused by the ravages of smallpox.

In 1520, Cortez introduced smallpox during his unsuccessful assault on the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, now Mexico City. With millions of Aztecs, Cortez and his small Spanish army was simply grossly outnumbered. Retreating back to Vera Cruz, he made his second attempt to topple Montezuma several months later. Upon returning to Tenochtitlan, he found widespread smallpox among the Aztecs. With little resistance, Cortez conquered the ailing and dying people in a few weeks.

Ever wonder how 300 Spanish Conquistadors overthrew the Aztec empire? It was with horses, gunpowder — and smallpox.

After the conquest, a citizen of Tenochtitlan wrote: "A great many died from the plague, and many others died of hunger. They could not get up to search for food, and everyone else was too sick to care for them, so they starved to death in their beds."

While the Aztecs did not have a word for the new disease, the Spaniards knew exactly what the Old World killer was.

Historians disagree on the total New World population at the time of the first European contact. The accepted estimates are between 20 million and 30 million American Indians, and 8 million and 10 million Aztecs. Regardless, by the end of the 16th century, most historians place a survivor population of the New World at just over 1 million. More than 95 percent of the native inhabitants of North America perished, mostly from the European diseases, for which they had no immunity. Smallpox was the No. 1 killer.

In South America, a similar fate was experienced by the Incas. Entire civilizations were nearly wiped out by smallpox and other diseases, not the sword.

Granted, at the time of the first Europeans, many of these cultures were already on a decline due to wars and agricultural devastation. However, in the Pulitzer award-winning book "Guns, Germs, and Steel," author Jared Diamond notes that the arrival of smallpox and other European diseases could not have arrived at a worse time.

While not intentional, the Spaniards, indeed, conquered and nearly eradicated the entire native population of the New World with smallpox. Similar fates were experienced by the native populations in the eastern portion of North America upon the arrival of the French and English settlers.

Smallpox in New Spain

The first Spanish visitation to New Mexico following Coronado was Fray Agustin Rodriguez and Francisco Chamuscado, in 1580, and Antonio de Espejo, in 1583. These were small expeditions to Christianize the Pueblo Indians some 15 years prior to Onate. Yet, this brief and limited contact was enough to spread diseases along the Rio Grande for the first documented epidemic in 1593. Documentation by a Jesuit reports that "smallpox and other maladies raged at regular 5- and 8-year intervals in northern New Spain (New Mexico) following the epidemic of 1593." The number of those inflicted or died from these early epidemics are not recorded.

However, in 1638, a number was mentioned in a letter by Fray Juan de Prada, who wrote: "... of the 60,000 natives that had been baptised in New Mexico had been reduced to around 40,000 because of the very active prevalence during these last years of smallpox and the sickness and death that followed."

This is consistent with the estimated population of the time. In 1680, at the time of the Pueblo Revolt, the Pueblo population was estimated at 60,000 and were living within 90 pueblos. Of these, an estimated 7,000 Piro Indians were living along the Rio Abajo in the vicinity of present day Socorro. Of the 2,500 Spaniards and colonists living in New Mexico in 1680, about 400 were killed and nearly 2,000 fled during the revolt. This left the 60,000 Pueblo Indians.

Spanish and Mexican colonists returned to New Mexico beginning in 1693 with the de Vargas expedition. One of the first things the returning Spaniards noticed were the abandoned Pueblos that were previously occupied, and the scarcity of the Pueblo people. Pueblos that were once home to hundreds of families were abandoned, and those that remained were now occupied by only dozens. What happened to tens of thousands of Pueblo Indians between 1680 and the early 1700s?

In 1736 and 1750, Spanish documents estimated the Pueblo population had dwindled to 8,000 due to smallpox and other diseases. In only 50 years, the Pueblo Indian population fell by nearly 90 percent. Even today, the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico only number about 10,000 and live in 25 pueblos — a fraction of what the nation once was.

With periods of drought, bad weather, and attacks by the Apache and Plains Indians, it is obviously difficult to determine with any certainty how many deaths are attributed to each cause. However, the dominant cause was clearly smallpox, if for no other reason than the Spaniards who documented this era only mentioned "smallpox and other diseases" to describe the native decline.

It must be stressed, this is referring to the sudden abandonment of the pueblos after 1680 and the first Spanish contact. This period of abandonment and the disappearance of thousands of pueblo Indians is attributed to smallpox and other diseases.

However, there remains unexplained disappearances of the early Indians from Chaco Canyon and similar areas in the A.D. 1000-1200 period, or well before the first Europeans. The disappearance of these people, and the abandonment of their pueblos, remains largely a mystery. It was not, however, due to smallpox.

Blaming the majority of more than 50,000 Pueblo Indian deaths on smallpox and the first Europeans has been endorsed by some historians and doubted by others. It is an accidental genocide that is difficult to accept. Although, the proof is there. And, as the population of New Mexico grew, smallpox began to ravage both the Pueblo Indians and the colonists alike.

The cause of death is seldom listed in early burial records. However, amateur historians researching church records have made some astounding discoveries to show the devastating effects of smallpox in some of New Mexico's Pueblos. One such study included the burial records of San Juan and Santa Clara pueblos. It was found that from 1776 through 1780, the average number of burials at both pueblos was about five per month. Suddenly, in January 1781, San Juan burials jumped to 41, and in February exploded to 236 with another 160 at Santa Clara. Another two dozens deaths at each pueblo occurred in March, followed by seven more burials for the rest of the year.

Clearly, something rampaged through these two pueblos in early 1781, beyond what you can blame on drought, starvation or the Apaches. Other archival records specifically describe an epidemic of smallpox in early 1781, which was apparently caused by infected members of a supply caravan along El Camino Real that arrived from Mexico City. Around this same time, other church records show the missions at some of the remote pueblos that were closed due to the deaths of most of their inhabitants from smallpox.

According to the Center of Disease Control, there were 93 epidemics and pandemics (very widespread epidemics) among the native people from the 16th century to the early 20th century. Of these, smallpox was the most dominant, and the most deadly. It spread quickly among the natives from Virginia to Alaska, following the advance of the Europeans, because they had no immunity to the disease.

From the first case of smallpox in the 1500s, introduced by the Spaniards and other Europeans, to the eradication of the disease in the 1970s, literally millions of Indians perished. Without the massive deaths caused by smallpox, Indians and the Aztecs would be the dominant people in North America today. Clearly, smallpox was a much larger historical factor that shaped the United States than most historians admit.

However, it wasn't just the history of the United States that was altered by smallpox. The deadly disease raged through Europe nearly constant from the 7th century onward, and killed millions, including from heads of state to kings and queens.

For example, in the early 1700s, as smallpox was raging through New Mexico, it was also raging through the British Isles. In 1702, Mary Stuart, Queen of England, died of smallpox. Being childless, this left her sister, Queen Anne, to succeed the throne. Married to Prince George of Denmark, Queen Anne gave birth to numerous children, of which only one son survived beyond the age of one. However, he, too, was stricken with smallpox and died at the age of 11, leaving Queen Anne with no male heirs to the crown.

When Queen Anne died in 1714, the throne was assumed by King George I, a German. Queen Anne became the last Scot to rule England. That certainly changed the history of England and Scotland. I wonder if Queen Elizabeth realizes she got her job because of smallpox?

Back to New Mexico, two additional smallpox epidemics in 1896-1899 and 1918-1919 claimed another several thousands of lives, in spite of the smallpox vaccine now being widely available. Because the U.S. government was so heavily involved in the war effort during the 1918-1919 epidemic, little was done to stop the epidemic, especially among those living in rural areas or the smaller towns and Indian pueblos.

The 1897 Socorro epidemic

Several smallpox epidemics hit the Rio Grande around the Socorro area in the 1800s, however details are quite sketchy due to lack of documentation or newspapers at the time. However, the epidemic that swept the state in 1897-1898 was well reported in the Socorro Chieftain.

In the Nov. 26, 1897, Socorro Chieftain, Thanksgiving in Socorro was described as "rather disagreeable owing to freezing temperatures and high winds that prevailed all day." This was followed by several days of heavy, cold rains that left all of the town's streets muddy with rocks and debris scattered about, giving Socorro a dismal appearance. The Chieftain also reports that due to the cold, wet weather, many people throughout the county were sick and in bed, which caused many businesses in San Marcial and San Antonio to be closed.

The following week, the Dec. 3 Socorro Chieftain begins with the following story: "Sheriff Bursum visiting friends in Silver City over Thanksgiving. Sheriff Bursum has been doing good work for Socorro. He has had prisoners in the county jail out on the streets, in charge by Jailer Dreyfuss, cleaning up rocks, stones, dry fallen leaves and other rubbish which now gives Socorro a tidy appearance. And it must be said that the prisoners take to the work cheerfully as it gives them a much needed outdoor exercise."

It is not known whether Sheriff Holm O. Bursum was merely utilizing prisoners to help clean up the city, or was it due to the large numbers of aforementioned sick who were unavailable to do the cleanup work.

Regardless, the next story on the front page reads: "SMALLPOX. Small pox is raging in Valverde and some cases in San Marcial. The greatest precautions should be used to prevent the spread of this dreaded disease from which a number have already died in the locality infected by it. Authorities should quarantine Socorro from all outsiders, as once here many deaths will occur and hundreds left scarred for life."

It is elsewhere explained that many people who thought they had gotten sick from the cold weather had contracted smallpox.

This is the first mention of the 1897-1898 smallpox epidemic in and around Socorro.

The following issue (the Socorro Chieftain was printed weekly in those days), further pleas from the editor urged authorities to quarantine Socorro before a smallpox catastrophe could occur. He continues in the Dec. 17 issue: "Small pox is now from Valverde to Paraje and La Joya to Sabinal with a very large number of deaths. Every possible effort should be made to keep it from spreading throughout the Rio Grande valley."

These pleas from the Socorro Chieftain editor, and no doubt by many Socorroans, shows the urgency New Mexicans had developed for smallpox.

Sheriff Holm Bursum and Socorro Mayor Elfego Baca (yes, THAT Elfego Baca) finally decided to quarantine Socorro, with the proclamation printed in the Dec. 24, 1897, Socorro Chieftain. It read as follows:

"QUARANTINE PROCLAMATION — To protect the citizens of Socorro against the spread of smallpox. All persons are prohibited from coming into, locating or staying anywhere within Socorro from San Marcial, Old San Marcial, Valverde, San Antonio and Sabinal. AT&SF Railroad directed not to sell tickets between any aforementioned points to or from Socorro. The City Marshal, Jose de La Luz Gonzales, Rozendo Gomes and Alfredo Gallegos are hereby appointed special officers with power and authority to prevent any person or persons from entering said town of Socorro. Signed: Elfego Baca, Mayor."

Even today, this proclamation sounds like a "shoot to kill" order if necessary.

The 1897 Christmas issue of the Socorro Chieftain continues to explain how guards are seen positioned on the roads north and south of town preventing anyone from entering Socorro. One can freely leave, but would not be allowed to return until the smallpox epidemic was over.

The editor concludes with "The acting Governor or the Socorro Mayor should have done this three weeks ago."

This is an interesting statement, because it shows how quickly a smallpox epidemic can spread. The first mention of smallpox in the region was only three weeks previous, and already, as reported in the Socorro Chieftain, "Smallpox is now from Valverde to Paraje and La Joya to Sabinal with a very large number of deaths."

In 1897, the road into Socorro was still El Camino Real. From the south, it traveled from Luis Lopez on the west side of the river into Socorro along what is now Cuba Road, crossing the railroad tracks by the old Crown Mill and passing through town on what is now Sixth Street. Maps of this era show Socorro extended south along Cuba Road to the Torrance Mill, just south of the present day I-25 overpass. South of the mill were a few scattered homes and farms between the hills and the river.

It was likely just south of the Torrance Mill where the road was blocked and the guards were stationed.

Unfortunately, it is not known the full extent of the 1897-1898 smallpox epidemic, how many in Socorro County succumbed to the deadly disease, or when the Quarantine Proclamation was rescinded.

There are virtually no Socorro Chieftain newspapers known to exist for the entire year of 1898 in either paper or microfilm versions, or in the El Defensor Chieftain archives. (If you have any old 1898 Socorro Chieftain's, let us know).

It is known this smallpox epidemic swept from the central plains, through the Southwest and into California, resulting in thousands deaths. Many perished in New Mexico, and Socorro County as well.

History has shown how smallpox has nearly eliminated nations and changed the direction of history. It certain changed the face of New Mexico.

Today, smallpox is a thing of the past, except for the possible use as a biological weapon. It can be seen why all the concern should smallpox be used by a hostile nation or terrorists. As history has taught us, even limited exposure to smallpox can cripple an entire nation in a short period of time. With airline travel, smallpox could conceivably be spread from continent to continent in a matter of hours in today's world.

Let's hope smallpox remains a footnote in history, but never forget how it changed the face of the New Mexico we know today.

Some of the references used in this article: "Rio Abajo," by Marshall and Walt; "The Piro Indians of Rio Abajo," by Michael Marshall; Sanford University, School of Medicine; Southwest Research and Information Center; various Socorro Chieftain newspapers, 1896-1899; American Indian Tribal Genealogy Center; "Historical Documents relating to New Mexico," C.W. Hackett, ed.; Center of Disease Control online epidemic statistics; "Guns, Germs, and Steel," by Jared Diamond.

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