Ongoing Research

The first phase of our research is to identify the timing and extent of all the smallpox epidemics up to 1900 after which smallpox becomes endemic and vaccination widely available. We will use all the data we find to refine estimates of the mortality rates from each wave of disease. We are investigating whether any of the epidemics were deliberate attempts at genocide or were the result of the callous or malicious disregard for Indigenous lives.

The second stage is to use what we learned to understand the impact of the disease and depopulation on the Indigenous communities in the Pacific Northwest. While our interest spans the Pacific Northwest we have been invited by the Stó:lō to do a detailed investigation into the social and cultural impacts of the disease in their communities.

A third stage is to document how the depopulation and cultural disruption caused by smallpox facilitated the colonization of the Pacific Northwest.

Our research plans include a range of outcomes: this website, a book, an art exhibit, some videos, academic articles, and K-12 curriculum material. Look for these outcomes on the Results and Publications and Curriculum Tabs.

As we accumulate information we are also presenting our works in progress at conferences and community events. Some of the past and upcoming presentations are listed below.

Upcoming Presentations

  • Old Cemeteries Society

    “Vaccines, Vaccine Resistance and the Smallpox Epidemic of 1862”

    Presented by John Lutz

    Online

Previous Presentations

  • June 2025

    Canadian Historical Association

    “A Border Strong Enough to Stop the Pox? Canadian Historical Association”

    Presented by John Lutz

    Toronto, ON

  • May 3-5, 2025

    BC Studies Conference

    “Dead men paddling: smallpox in 1862-3”

    Presented by John Lutz

    “Vaccine Enthusiasm and Vaccine Hesitancy in Coast Salish British Columbia”

    Presented by Keith Thor Carlson

    Vancouver, BC

  • Friends of the BC Archives

    “The Smallpox Chiefs: Bioterrorism and Power in the Pacific Northwest”

    Presented by John Lutz

    Newcombe Hall, Victoria, BC

  • Canadian Historical Association

    “A Sickness No One Can Cure: New Research on the 1862 Smallpox Epidemic”

    Presented by John Lutz

    Ross Bay Villa, Victoria

  • Canadian Society for the History of Medicine

    “Indigenous Understandings of the First Smallpox in the Pacific Northwest”

    Presented by John Lutz

    Montreal, QB

  • Utrecht University

    “Smallpox Bioterrorism and the Politics of Forgetting”

    Presented by Keith Thor Carlson

    Netherlands

  • Association for Canadian Studies in the United States

    “Death’s Cold Embrace: Smallpox in the Pacific Northwest”

    Presented by John Lutz

    Washington, D.C.

  • American Society for Ethnohistory

    “Vaccine Hesitancy and Coast Salish People in 1862”

    Presented by Keith Thor Carlson

    Tallahassee, Florida

  • CFUV Radio

    Conversation with Interviewee Margo Gray “Smallpox”

    Presented by John Lutz

    Victoria, BC