by Rich Wandschneider | Dec 11, 2024 | George Washington, Indian population, Marcus Whitman, measles, mumps, smallpox, vaccination, vaccine, Whitman massacre
A friend texted me to say that she “got whooping cough for Christmas.” I’m 82 and don’t remember knowing anyone with whooping cough. Maybe it was around when I was young, but my own disease related memories are chicken pox—mom taking me to the neighbor’s house to...
by Rich Wandschneider | Nov 25, 2022 | 1855 treaty, 1863 treaty, Alice Flether, Allen Pinkham, smallpox, smallpox epidemic of 1780s, Snake River
It’s holiday time, Thanksgiving and I am in Oregon City at my son’s place, reading the morning news on my computer. The house is quiet with people sleeping off yesterday’s meal and working from home on their computers. I got up early and read for an hour in a book...
by Rich Wandschneider | Nov 30, 2020 | epidemic disease, First thanksgiving, Nez Perce, Robin Kimmerer, Salmon people, Shannon Wheeler, smallpox, Snake River dams, Sweetgrass
Several people forwarded me a link to “Salmon People: A tribe’s decades-long fight to take down the Lower Snake River dams and restore a way of life,” a fine article on the lower Snake River dams by Linda Mapes, published in the Seattle Times on Sunday, November 29....
by Rich Wandschneider | Jun 16, 2020 | American Indians, Black Lives Matter, COVID-19, epidemics, Navajo Nation, Pandemics, smallpox
Of course “Black Lives Matter”! And bringing attention to the large numbers of deaths by police and the cases and deaths by COVID-19 among African-Americans is the right thing to do. The press has gone some way towards reporting the heavy impact of the disease on the...
by Rich Wandschneider | May 1, 2020 | Charles Mann, COVID-19, Indian population, infectious diseases, nurture and nature, smallpox, virology
On Monday night, on NPR’s coronavirus question and answer show, a listener asked whether there might be something in African Americans’ unique vulnerability to sickle cell anemia that related to their high rates of infection—and death—with COVID-19. The medical person...
by Rich Wandschneider | Apr 13, 2020 | 1491, Charles Mann, COVID-19, epidemics, Helper t-cells, HLA, Indigenous population of America, Pandemics, smallpox
Years ago, when I was the Director of an organization called Fishtrap, we had a conference at Wallowa Lake on “Fire.” Stephen J. Pyne, the McArthur Fellow who wrote the books on fire in America, was the featured speaker. Forest Service and BLM firefighters from across...
