Excerpt from Tuberculosis Among Certain Indian Tribes of the United States

The increasing prevalence of tuberculosis in all its forms among the Indians in many parts of this country demands the special atten tion of the student of the subject and calls for vigorous attempts to limit the spread of the infection.

It is not positively known whether or not tuberculosis existed among the natives of this continent before the advent of the whites. That it was rare, if it did exist, may be judged from the following indications: (1) No reference to the prevalence of this disease among the Indians is made by the writers who reported on the period of the earliest contact of the whites with the various tribes. (2) There are to this day among the Indians a scarcity of remedies and a lack of specialized forms of treatment for this disease. (3) In many tribes the testimony of the old Indians is to the effect that diseases of the kind were unknown or but seldom seen among them in their early days, or in the still earlier times of which information had come down to them. (4) The old men and women in many of the tribes are remarkably free from signs of tuberculosis of the lymph nodes and bones. (5) The whites who have been long in contact with the Indians, particularly in the Southwest, all speak of the spread of: the disease within their memory, while the observations of ex plorers and men of science indicate a progressive decrease in most localities as we recede into the past. (6) As yet no bones of un doubtedly pre-columbian origin have been found that show tuber oulous lesions, and such lesions are very rare in Indian bones dating from the period of the earliest contact with the whites. (7) The Indian presents everywhere a greater susceptibility to the disease than the white man; this means a 'lesser immunization of his system, indicating the more recent introduction of the infection into his race. (8) It is to be assumed on purely logical grounds that the disease must have been much less frequent among the Indians in former times when they lived a more natural and active life, were better inured to hardships, and, with exception of particular localities and periods, were better provided with suitable food.

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