Indian Vaccination Act of 1832 is a US federal law passed by the US Congress in 1832.[2] The purpose of the act was to vaccinate the American Indians against smallpox to prevent the spread of the disease.
.svg) | |
| Long title | An Act to provide the means of extending the benefits of vaccination, as a preventive of small-pox, to the Indian tribes, and thereby, as far as possible, to save them from the destructive ravages of that disease. |
|---|---|
| Enacted by | the 22nd United States Congress |
| Effective | May 5, 1832 |
| Citations | |
| Public law | Pub. L. 22–75 |
| Statutes at Large | 4 Stat. 514 |
| Legislative history | |
History
editThe act was first passed on May 5, 1832. Lewis Cass, Secretary of War, designed the act.[3] Members of Congress appropriated US$12,000 (approximately $400,000 in current money) to vaccinate them.[4] By February 1, 1833, more than 17,000 Indians had been vaccinated.[5]
Congress allocated $12,000 for the entire program, to be administered by Indian agents and sub-agents. Some US army surgeons refused to participate due to the lack of funds, leaving agents themselves and others with no medical training to produce and administer vaccines.[6] However, not everyone was included. As a result, a few years later, smallpox killed 90% of the Mandan Indians, who had been excluded from the act.[7] It also excluded Hidatsas and Arikaras.[5]
References
edit- ^ "H.R. 526 — 22nd Congress (1831-1833)". Congress.gov. U.S. Library of Congress.
- ^ "U.S. vaccinates Native peoples on the frontier against smallpox - Timeline - Native Voices". National Library of Medicine. National Institutes of Health. Retrieved 2020-03-30.
- ^ Pearson, J. Diane (2003-08-28). "Lewis Cass and the Politics of Disease: The Indian Vaccination Act of 1832". Wíčazo Ša Review. 18 (2): 9–35. doi:10.1353/wic.2003.0017. ISSN 1533-7901. S2CID 154875430.
- ^ Bloch Rubin, Ruth. "Public Health, Indian Removal, and the Growth of State Capacity, 1800-1850" (PDF). American Politics Workshop. University of Wisconsin–Madison. Retrieved 29 March 2020.[permanent dead link]
- ^ a b "Section 2: Smallpox Among Indian Tribes | North Dakota Studies". North Dakota Studies. Retrieved 2020-03-30.
- ^ SHRAKE, PETER (2012). "The Silver Man: JOHN H. KINZIE AND THE FORT WINNEBAGO INDIAN AGENCY". The Wisconsin Magazine of History. 96 (2): 9–10. ISSN 0043-6534. JSTOR 24399556. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
- ^ Pearson, J. Diane (1997). The politics of disease: The Indian Vaccination Act, 1832. American Indian studies at the University of Arizona (Thesis). Retrieved 2020-03-30.