Presenter: Madeline Weissman
Mentor: Kevin Hatfield
Oral Presentation
Major: Psychology/Spanish
I chose to study the effects of disease on the Northern Paiute from the 1700’s through present day for a 10 week Honors College Colloquium. I chose this topic due to my ongoing interest in public health and the ways diseases correlate with cultural and social factors. This study is a historical epidemiology, combining biological information on the components of epidemic diseases such as the flu, malaria, smallpox, and measles with geographical information on the Pacific Northwest as well as cultural information on the lifestyle of the Northern Paiute. I investigated the
onset of epidemiological diseases in relation to movement onto reservations. This study focuses on the interaction between disease and the idiosyncratic cultural patterns of the Northern Paiute, such as location, movement, isolation, and traditional medicinal practices. Methods for my research included finding primary sources such as government documents obtained via microfilm and handwritten letters available through the UO Library’s Special Collections. Additionally, I conducted three oral interviews with four tribe members and referenced secondary sources obtained through the UO library catalogue. Approximately half of my research comes from primary sources and half from secondary sources. Through my research, I found that diseases such as the flu, malaria, smallpox, and measles only started to affect the Northern Paiute once they were forced onto reservations and continue to have devastating population repercussions on the existing tribe.