1862: Priests vaccinate thousands on Northwest Coast

Catholic missionaries from the Oblate of Mary Immaculate give smallpox vaccinations to thousands of Indians in dozens of villages on the Northwest Pacific coast. Local newspapers credit Father Leon Fouquet with treating 1,500 people in 23 Indian villages. Fouquet ships the vaccine to Fr. Casimir Chirouse, who vaccinates many at the Tulalip Indian Agency in Washington, some more than once. Only three deaths are reported at the agency that year, though smallpox ravages surrounding villages.

“During the past year, sickness has prevailed to a very great extent among the Indians of the Sound and I am sorry to say that my pupils have suffered much more than heretofore … As there is no doctor on the reservation, they still continue to apply to me for medicine, believing my stock inexhaustible.” —Father Chirouse, 1866

Theme

Epidemics

Region

Northwest Coast