Summary
This outbreak was the product of the newly expanded horse-trade network stretching from Mexico to the Plains. The Cree first received horses sometime between 1732 and 1754. The 1750s was a period of heightened tensions and warfare on the Plains. The introduction of horses and heightened warfare brought tribes into frequent contact, providing opportunity for diseases to spread. While the horse trade network expanded to the Plains from the South-West, measles had circulated in the Eastern Colonies from 1747-1749. It is possible that measles epidemics had moved West through modern day Manitoba or South and then West into the Missouri River Valley (through the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Pawnee peoples) and then onto the Plains.
Implications
The measles outbreak of 1751 marked a change in the Plains experience with epidemics. The pattern of trade that developed between the 1730s - late 1750s was created by the Assiniboine and the Cree trading with both the French and the English. This arrangement fostered unregulated competition between traders which resulted in increased warfare, epidemics, and dwindling numbers of game (particularly buffalo).
Resources
Date
1751-00-00