The Hop Pickers' Smallpox Scare
As the hop harvest approaches, local labor agent Joseph Tebeau worries that fear of a smallpox outbreak will leave fields empty.
Joseph Tebeau, of Tracyton, who is largely interested in the hiring of Indians as hop pickers, was in the city yesterday. He says that he believes Indians will be scarce at the hop fields this summer. 'I have visited the reservations in this state,' he added, 'and have also gone across the border, but I find that everywhere the Indians are much afraid of the smallpox, and prefer to stay at home. If the disease wholly disappears during the next two weeks they may come out.'
“I find that everywhere the Indians are much afraid of the smallpox, and prefer to stay at home.”
Public health crises have historically been weaponized or feared in ways that disrupt labor markets and the lives of marginalized communities. This anxiety regarding the 1892 harvest reflects the deep, often fragile reliance on Indigenous labor in early Washington agriculture.
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