Indian Vaccination Act of 1832

Act to vaccinate Indian Americans for smallpox

Indian Vaccination Act of 1832

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

* Introduced in the House as H.R. 526[1]
* Passed the House on April 9, 1832 (Passed)
* Passed the Senate on April 24, 1832 (31-10)
* Signed into law by President Andrew Jackson on May 5, 1832

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.

## History

[edit]

The 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]

1. ^ "H.R. 526 — 22nd Congress (1831-1833)". Congress.gov. U.S. Library of Congress.
2. ^ "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.
3. ^ 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 154875430.9-35&rft.date=2003-08-28&rft_id=https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:154875430#id-name=S2CID&rft.issn=1533-7901&rft_id=info:doi/10.1353/wic.2003.0017&rft.aulast=Pearson&rft.aufirst=J.+Diane&rft_id=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/46131&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Indian+Vaccination+Act+of+1832" class="Z3988">
4. ^ Bloch Rubin, Ruth. "Public Health, Indian Removal, and the Growth of State Capacity, 1800-1850" (PDF). American Politics Workshop. University of Wisconsin–Madison. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 4, 2020. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
5. ^ a b "Section 2: Smallpox Among Indian Tribes | North Dakota Studies". North Dakota Studies. Retrieved 2020-03-30.
6. ^ 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 2021.9-10&rft.date=2012&rft_id=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24399556#id-name=JSTOR&rft.issn=0043-6534&rft.aulast=SHRAKE&rft.aufirst=PETER&rft_id=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24399556&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Indian+Vaccination+Act+of+1832" class="Z3988">
7. ^ 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.

## See also

[edit]

* 1721 Boston smallpox outbreak
* 1738–1739 North Carolina smallpox epidemic
* 1770s Pacific Northwest smallpox epidemic
* 1775–1782 North American smallpox epidemic
* 1837 Great Plains smallpox epidemic
* 1862 Pacific Northwest smallpox epidemic

History of Variola Inoculation

Benjamin Waterhouse | Ottoman Smallpox Inoculation
Edward Jenner | Smallpox Vaccine
James Smith | Vaccine Act of 1813
John Redman Coxe | Valentine Seaman
Norfolk Anti-Inoculation Riot of 1768 | Variolation

## Plenipotentiary letters regarding smallpox in Colonial America

[edit]

* Jefferson, Thomas (March 20, 1764). "Medicine". Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. Thomas Jefferson Foundation.
* Washington, George (January 1, 1775). "Disease in the Revolutionary War". George Washington's Mount Vernon. The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association.
* Washington, George (January 1, 1777). "Smallpox". George Washington's Mount Vernon. The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association.
* Washington, George (March 12, 1777). "Smallpox Inoculation Letter". George Washington's Mount Vernon. The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association.
* Jefferson, Thomas (December 27, 1777). "Bill concerning Inoculation for Smallpox". Founders Online. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
* Jefferson, Thomas (June 18, 1779). "77. A Bill to Prevent the Spreading of the Small-Pox". Founders Online. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
* Madison, James (October 31, 1785). "Bills for a Revised State Code of Laws". Founders Online. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
* Waterhouse, Benjamin (December 1, 1800). "To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Waterhouse, 1 December 1800". Founders Online. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. hdl:loc.mss/mtj.mtjbib009481.
* Jenner, Edward (1800). "An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae: A Disease Discovered in Some of the Western Counties of England, particularly Gloucestershire, and Known by the Name of the Cow Pox". HathiTrust Digital Library. Sampson Low. hdl:loc.rbc/General.36460.1. OCLC 488553153.
* Waterhouse, Benjamin (1800). "A Prospect of Exterminating the Small-Pox: Being the History of the Variolae Vaccinae, or Kine-Pox, commonly called the Cow-Pox". HathiTrust Digital Library. Cambridge Press. OCLC 912241814.
* Waterhouse, Benjamin (June 8, 1801). "To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Waterhouse, 8 June 1801". Founders Online. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
* Waterhouse, Benjamin (November 16, 1801). "To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Waterhouse, 16 November 1801". Founders Online. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. hdl:loc.mss/mtj.mtjbib010741.
* Jefferson, Thomas (1801). "Inoculation". Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. Thomas Jefferson Foundation.
* Waterhouse, Benjamin (January 11, 1802). "To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Waterhouse, 11 January 1802". Founders Online. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. hdl:loc.mss/mtj.mtjbib010994.
* Coxe, John Redman (December 10, 1802). "To Thomas Jefferson from John Redman Coxe, 10 December 1802". Founders Online. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. hdl:loc.mss/mtj.mtjbib011964.
* Coxe, John Redman (1802). "Practical Observations on Vaccination or Inoculation for the Cow-Pock". HathiTrust Digital Library. James Humphreys. hdl:loc.gdc/scd0001.00025897419. LCCN 07032543. OCLC 915511206.
* Jefferson, Thomas (May 14, 1806). "From Thomas Jefferson to George C. Jenner, 14 May 1806" [Commending the merits of vaccination for communicable disease]. Founders Online. Monticello, Virginia: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. hdl:loc.mss/mtj.mtjbib016128.

## General Court of Massachusetts Province Laws

[edit]

* "Chapter 13: An Act To Prevent Persons Concealing The Small-Pox". State Library of Massachusetts Digital Collections. Boston: Secretary of the Commonwealth. February 3, 1732. pp. 621–622.621-622&rft.date=1732-02-03&rft_id=https://archives.lib.state.ma.us/bitstreams/27f0e59f-5a21-4e5d-8e64-b07569117292/download&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Indian+Vaccination+Act+of+1832" class="Z3988">
* "Chapter 17: An Act To Prevent The Spreading Of The Small-Pox And Other Infectious Sickness, And To Prevent The Concealing Of The Same". State Library of Massachusetts Digital Collections. Boston: Secretary of the Commonwealth. January 17, 1743. pp. 35–37.35-37&rft.date=1743-01-17&rft_id=https://archives.lib.state.ma.us/bitstreams/d7d3812b-eece-443b-83ec-c991666beb22/download&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Indian+Vaccination+Act+of+1832" class="Z3988">
* "Chapter 17: An Act To Prevent, If Possible, The Further Spreading Of The Smallpox In The Town Of Boston". State Library of Massachusetts Digital Collections. Boston: Secretary of the Commonwealth. January 20, 1764. p. 668.

## Audio media archive

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* The Ravages of the Small Pox: Jefferson and Inoculation (Podcast). Monticello, Virginia: Thomas Jefferson Foundation.
* Thomas Jefferson's Health Habits (Podcast). Monticello, Virginia: Thomas Jefferson Foundation.

## External links

[edit]

* Media related to Smallpox vaccination at Wikimedia Commons

Portals:

* Indigenous peoples of the Americas
* Law
* Medicine
* United States
* Viruses

*[Pub. L.]: Public Law