I'm trying to spend
some time writing about the health problems on the frontier, to give you a
feel for the kind of world our ancestors lived in. I haven't done research
specific to health, but I have run across a few facts that give a general idea
of the problems they faced.
I've already talked
about the horrendous epidemics of smallpox suffered by the Indians during the
early days. Ironically, smallpox was the only
infection of the time for which there was effective prevention.
For almost every
other disease, people had no defense. In many cases they didn't even understand
what caused the infection, or how it spread. Even when my mother was a child,
my grandmother relied on sanitation and isolation for prevention of illness,
and all she had for treatment were purging, poultices and prayer.
Let me start off by
telling what I know about Indian country. When you drive through Oklahoma now,
you see much open land, forests, prairie, cut across by an occasional stream.
It's easy to assume that it was much the same 150 - 200 years ago, but that's
not the case. I'm certainly no expert, but I've read enough to understand some
of the changes that have taken place.
The eastern part of
the old Indian Territory, especially the northeast, was almost a swamp in
some places. Large steamboats carrying immigrants and supplies were able to navigate
from the Mississippi River well into Indian Territory on the Arkansas River in
the north and on the Red River in the south, and traders were able to travel completely across the territory in canoes.
Ft. Gibson was
established in 1824, and was the U S Army's base of operations on the western
frontier for 50 years. It was located at the confluence of the Verdigris, Grand, and Arkansas Rivers. Because of the heat and humidity there, the log
buildings were constantly rotting and having to be rebuilt. General Matthew Arbuckle, commander of the
fort, requested permission to change to rock construction in 1931, but his request
was denied.
Although Fort
Gibson was built 18 feet above the water it was practically destroyed in 1833
by a flood, and there was also a cholera epidemic that year. The heat and
humidity were so great that Colonel Arbuckle allowed some of the men to sleep on
a hill above the fort where it was cooler.
One of the traders
making an expedition into the same area in the 1820's wrote that he had to
travel by night to avoid the flies, and still they were so thick that over 100 of his
horses were suffocated.
In 1833 the army
attempted an expedition deep into Indian Territory to make contact with the
"wild" tribes. Halfway into the expedition over half the troops had
to be sent back because of illness. A Comanche hunting party actually rescued the soldiers
by leading them to a village of Wichitas, where there was plentiful food and water. On the way back to the fort, men were dying every day. The Dragoons, who made up most of the troops on the
expedition, lost 163 men.
Summer was known as
the "sick season" in Indian Territory because of the prevalence of malaria, and the
hospital at Fort Gibson was crowded during the summer months. Many officers took
leaves of absence or resigned, and there were many desertions. One outpost,
Fort Wayne, north of Fort Gibson, had to be abandoned because of malaria. I
don't have accurate information about the total number stationed there, but I
doubt if it was much more than 500, and the daily sick report during the summer of
1839 ranged from 120 to 160 men.
So why are things
different now? For one thing, the construction of dams and reservoirs have
reduced the risk of flooding, and farming and irrigation have siphoned water
from the streams and rivers, reducing the total flow. Insecticides have reduced
the mosquito and fly population, and malaria has been virtually eliminated in
the United States by effective treatment. Now northeastern Oklahoma is a
pleasant getaway for tourists, not a miserable, treacherous Hell.
References:
Advancing the Frontier, and Pioneer Days in the Early Southwest, by Grant
Foreman
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