Bill's Planet

The infected mosquito is the vector that induces and spreads malaria to its victims and so the Pacific Coast Native Americans who died from this disease in the 1830’s (if your source is reliable, Dr. Lewis, as I know of no Native source of documentation) were not contaminated by the new White arrivals, as you likely know. The Gold Rush and settlements that occurred afterwards yield harsh evidence of the recklessness that foreigners, whose goals are to take whatever they can for themselves regardless of the consequences to previous inhabitants of the land they covet, can and do repeatedly demonstrate behaviorally. Sadly, this lesson is one that the indigenous peoples of the New World (now North and South AMERICA) learned by paying with their health, lives, and lands. Imperialism has not worked for the Indigenous Peoples of America as acculturation meant disowning their language and traditions and adapting a foreign manner of life that did not necessarily meet their need to survive and thrive as a people. Furthermore, the new federal and state governments were remiss in honoring their commitments to defend and protect the people and their property from the encroachment of new arrivals hell bent on repopulating and enforcing their own culture and way of life. Unhappily, these practices can be seen worldwide and the indigenous peoples of foreign lands are the collateral damaged goods of these acts. Thank you for your informed account of Native American history of the Pacific Coast of the USA.