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Timeline / Reshaping America / 1780: Smallpox epidemics strike Mexico and the Great Plains

1780: Smallpox epidemics strike Mexico and the Great Plains

For two years, smallpox spreads from Mexico north and throughout the Great Plains, killing many members of Ojibwe bands, the Shoshone, Siksika (Blackfeet), Kanai (Blood), Peigan, Cree, Assiniboine, and A’aninin (Gros Ventre).

Theme
Epidemics
Region
Great Basin, Great Plains, Northwest Coast, Plateau, Southwest

Shoshone Indians gathered around tipis, ca. 1880–1910. Some Native Americans survived the smallpox epidemics, as evidenced by this photograph of a group of Shoshone Indians several generations later.

Courtesy Library of Congress