Portland State University PDXScholar Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations Anthropology 6-2013 Lower Chinookan Disease and Demography Robert T. Boyd Portland State University,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/anth_fac Part of the Archaeological Anthropology Commons, and the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Citation Details Boyd, Robert T., "Lower Chinookan Disease and Demography," in Chinookan Peoples of the Lower Columbia River, pages 229-249. University of Washington Press (June 2013) This Book Chapter is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. Please contact us if we can make this document more accessible:
[email protected]. ELEVEN lOWER CHINOOKAN DISEASE AND DEMOGRAPHY Robert T. Boyd N the first century of contact, the Lower Columbia Chinookans suffered more from the effects of introduced diseases and depopulation than I almost any other Native peoples in the Northwest. Yet they survived, and their numbers are increasing. This chapter is a history of Lower Chinookan disease and population, from the aboriginal state, through the disruptive early contact years, up to the rebound and revitalization of the last century. ABORIGINAL HEALTH AND DISEASE Like other Northwest Coast peoples contacted by whites in the late 1700s and in common with early contact hunting-gathering peoples around the world, Lower Columbia Chinookans were relatively healthy. The explorers and traders who first met them said as much. On November 1, 1805, after spend ing nearly a year in lower-river Chinookan territory, William Clark wrote: "The nativs of the waters of the Columbia appear helthy" (Lewis and Clark 1988:373).