The Plague at the Doorstep: Seattle’s Battle Against Smallpox in 1877

SMALL-POX OUTBREAK.

As was generally feared at the outset, the outbreak of small-pox at Port Orchard is proving to be quite a serious matter; like a prairie fire in the West, there is no telling where it will end. We learn from a gentleman from Port Madison that the authorities of Kitsap county have so far taken no action in the matter whatever, although the people both at Port Blakely and Madison have urged them to do so.

Two white men and several half-breed children at Port Orchard are down with the disease, while two Indian women have already died of it. Indians engaged in fishing thereabouts are constantly visiting and leading the infected neighborhood for fish of the Sound, without the least restraint being placed upon them. These Indians often come direct from the cabins of their sick friends to Port Madison and Blakely and mingle with the people and other Indians there.

If this be so, and we have no reason to dispute it, the neglect of the authorities of Kitsap county, and particularly of the Port Blakely district, in the matter, which has made such a condition of things possible, is most deserving of censure. Indians are naturally very cautious in exposing themselves to contagious diseases. But although they regard such pestilence with a sort of superstitious horror, and are generally disposed to give infected neighborhoods a wide berth, their fear is that of crude ignorance, and as they are entirely uncontrolled by reason, they act in such case very much on the same principle as panic-stricken beasts during a fire, which in their terror have been known to plunge headlong into the flames, when every effort was made to abet their escape.

There is it is but fully to claim that the natural fear the Indians entertain of this disease will prevent a spread of it among themselves, or their communicating it to the white population, under such circumstances as those in question. This disease has frequently broken out among the Indians and swept away whole tribes of them, and in all such cases their natural fear of it has not prevented its spreading. The authorities of Kitsap county should at once blockade Port Orchard harbor, and shut up the diseased Indians and white men so effectually as to prevent the possibility of their communication with other Indians in any manner. Until this be done the small-pox is certain to spread, and, as we said before, there is no knowing where it will end.

The people of Port Blakely have already taken the matter into their own hands, and have raised $30 for the purchase of provisions, etc., for the patients. There should have been no occasion for private assistance of this kind, for it is the business of the county authorities to see that they are provided for and properly isolated.

MORE OF THE SMALL-POX — A report was made to Dr. Weed, day before yesterday, that the small-pox was seen at Salmon Bay. Upon the receipt of which information he repaired immediately to that locality. He found upon reaching the place that a Chinaman had died there of that disease the day before, and had been buried by her Indian friends, who immediately afterwards had burned her clothing and bedding on the beach, after which they quit the locality. He found it impossible to do anything further, as the hereabouts of the Indians was then unknown.

Yesterday, however, the news reached town that a party of Indians from Salmon Bay were in camp on the Duwamish. He set out immediately for the place, and found that the Indians were the same party that had the small-pox case at Salmon Bay. He at once made quarantine arrangements for their retention there, until the incubation period had passed, and all possibility of their breaking out with the disease was removed. In order to do this it will be necessary to supply them with provisions, and these should be forthcoming from the county as soon as needed.

The Doctor, as health officer, has further instructed the police to prevent all Indians from landing at this port, and, so far as practicable, from coming into town from any quarter. For his prompt and efficient action in this matter, the citizens of Seattle owe him a debt of gratitude; had he been less particular in the matter there is no telling what the result would have been. The Indians in question are certainly infected with the disease; but isolated as they are now, there is not much chance of its spreading from them.

The jurisdiction of the health officer does not really extend outside of the city limits, and in this instance the Doctor has done much more than could even have been asked or expected of him in that official capacity.