I've been reading this thread with some interest and concern. Fear does strange things to people (of all colours). Makes they say and do strange things in their efforts to lash-out.
I appreciate all the insights by all posters on this thread.
However, the occasional racial slurs and comments make me unsettled, as I believe that kind of disrespect misleads the conversation and makes in nearly impossible to understand the other's point of view. This is NOT the route to mutual understanding.
Having said that; I'd like to summarize what I think we may all be able to agree on:
1/ Smallpox ravaged the First Nations communities throughout Canada, especially along the heavier-populated trade routes; and also hit the so-called "white" communities (well documented here), but the whites had more innate resistance to this disease, due to historical contact that previously wiped-out the gene pool that contained lesser resistance to that disease.
The disease killed many thousands of West Coast First Nations (incl. the Haida); but also killed an estimated 400,000 Europeans
each year during the 18th century (see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox)
2/ Very little was actually known about disease transmission until approximately WWII, although some insights were assumed that may or may not have proven correct since the development of things like DNA analysis, scanning electromicroscopes, and various biochemical tagging methodologies developed in the past 20-50 years.
It is a certainty that back in the 1600-1800s, nobody actually knew enough about smallpox to be able to efficiently transport a viable, infective, live virus by blankets over long distances.
That's because smallpox is an extremely fragile virus (i.e. the variola virus, genus Orthopoxvirus, family Poxviridae) that can only survive small time frames (~24 hours) outside of a host; and needs exact temperatures and humidities and live tissue to survive outside a host. Usually, it was transmitted from person to person by air through tiny droplets of saliva.
So, it is unlikely that given the timeframe and technology available (slow sailing ships, canoes, and pack horse caravans) at the time - that the British, or any others, had much actual success with infecting natives with blankets.
This is not to say there was no intent to do so (as FA correctly pointed-out); but to be honest - it is more likely that person-to-person contact was the most likely transmission vector.
Given the large and complex trade routes at the time - it is even more plausible that this was the reason for the diseases so-called "success" in infecting and killing large numbers of so-called "incompetent" hosts (i.e. non-resistant First Nations).
3/ We all (First Nations AND European descendants) know less than we should about pre- and early post-European contact and the early history of Canada and North America.
Sometimes that history is "fun", sometimes it is unfortunate - but never is it dull. I can only be personally responsible for my own history and behaviour - and so it is for everyone else. This doesn't mean I have no responsibility to seek the truth, though.
By knowing more about each other's backgrounds - the more we understand each other. And for me - that's what it is about.
All our kids need to learn how to get along with each other, since it is our world (and mess) they are inheriting.
