Thursday, November 12, 2009

Did the U.S. Army Distribute Smallpox Blankets to Indians?

just curious can't find anything online

Did the U.S. Army Distribute Smallpox Blankets to Indians?
You are probably thinking of the smallpox infected blankets that were given to Native Americans by British General Jeffrey Amherst.





Despite that instance of deliberate biological warfare, much of the spread of smallpox was unintentional, as the understanding of disease transmission was quite limited.





One outbreak of smallpox among the Hurons was caused after the fall of Ft. William Henry during the French and Indian War. When the garrison surrendered to French General Montcalm, his Huron allies were upset at not being able to garner scalps from the English. The Hurons dug up several graves (not knowing that those dead English colonists had died of smallpox) and took their scalps, spreading the disease back to their villages.
Reply:" Under orders from British General Jeffrey Amherst, the commander of Fort Pitts gave the attacking Indian chiefs, with whom he was negotiating, blankets from the smallpox hospital. It was a pioneering effort at what is now called biological warfare. An epidemic soon spread among the Indians.


Despite this, and the burning of villages, the British could not destroy the will of the Indians, who continued guerrilla war. A peace was made, with the British agreeing to establish a line at the Appalachians, beyond which settlements would not encroach on Indian territory. This was the Royal Proclamation of 1763, and it angered Americans (the original Virginia charter said its land went westward to the ocean). It helps to explain why most of the Indians fought for England during the Revolution. With their French allies, then their English allies, gone, the Indians faced a new land-coveting nation-alone. "





Check it out!
Reply:NO. This incident happened during Pontiac's Rebellion, at Fort Pitt, in 1763. This was before the United States ever existed.





There is some evidence that the British Army "donated" some blankets from their smallpox ward to the Indians beseiging Fort Pitt. See the attached references.





For more, try googling "smallpox blankets".
Reply:I cannot confirm my suspicions, but I am fairly positive that it was the British (from Britain, not the colonies) who distributed smallpox to the Native Americans via blankets during the Seven Years War (though its called something different in Europe).
Reply:No, that was a phony charge made by Ward Churchill that was complete debunked by the person who's work Churchill plagiarized.
Reply:Nope,





That was the British Army that did that.
Reply:yes they did. nothing more than that they just did so that they could take their land.
Reply:Yes but that was over 100 years ago.
Reply:Yep, got mine last week


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