View source for Biology:Indian Vaccination Act of 1832

{{short description|Act to vaccinate Indian Americans for smallpox}}
The '''Indian Vaccination Act''' is a US federal law was passed by the US Congress in 1832.<ref>{{Cite web|title=U.S. vaccinates Native peoples on the frontier against smallpox - Timeline - Native Voices|url=https://www.nlm.nih.gov/nativevoices/timeline/282.html|access-date=2020-03-30|website=National Library of Medicine|location=[[Organization:National Institutes of Health|National Institutes of Health]]}}</ref> The purpose of the act was to [[Biology:Vaccine|vaccinate]] the American Indians against [[Medicine:Smallpox|smallpox]] to prevent the spread of the disease.

== History ==
The act was first passed on May 5, 1832. Lewis Cass, Secretary of War, designed the act.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Pearson|first=J. Diane|date=2003-08-28|title=Lewis Cass and the Politics of Disease: The Indian Vaccination Act of 1832|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/46131|journal=Wíčazo Ša Review|language=en|volume=18|issue=2|pages=9–35|doi=10.1353/wic.2003.0017|issn=1533-7901|s2cid=154875430|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Members of Congress appropriated US$12,000 dollars (approximately ${{Inflation|index=US-GDP|value=12000|start_year=1832|r=-4|fmt=c}} in current money) to vaccinate them.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Bloch Rubin|first=Ruth|title=Public Health, Indian Removal, and the Growth of State Capacity, 1800-1850|url=https://apw.polisci.wisc.edu/APW_Papers/Public%20Health%20Indian%20Removal%20and%20the%20Growth%20of%20State%20Capacity%20Revised%20Draft.pdf|access-date=29 March 2020|website=American Politics Workshop|location=[[Organization:University of Wisconsin–Madison|University of Wisconsin–Madison]]}}</ref>  By February 1, 1833, more than 17,000 Indians had been vaccinated.<ref name=":1" />

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.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=SHRAKE |first1=PETER |title=The Silver Man: JOHN H. KINZIE AND THE FORT WINNEBAGO INDIAN AGENCY |journal=The Wisconsin Magazine of History |date=2012 |volume=96 |issue=2 |pages=9–10 |jstor=24399556 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24399556 |access-date=9 November 2021 |issn=0043-6534}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":2">{{Cite thesis|last=Pearson|first=J. Diane|date=1997 |title=The politics of disease: The Indian Vaccination Act, 1832 |url=https://ais.arizona.edu/thesis/politics-disease-indian-vaccination-act-1832|access-date=2020-03-30|website=American Indian studies at the [[Organization:University of Arizona|University of Arizona]]}}</ref> It also excluded Hidatsas and Arikaras.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=Section 2: Smallpox Among Indian Tribes {{!}} North Dakota Studies|url=https://www.ndstudies.gov/gr8/content/unit-ii-time-transformation-1201-1860/lesson-4-alliances-and-conflicts/topic-1-smallpox-epidemics-1781-1837-1851/section-2-smallpox-among-indian-tribes|access-date=2020-03-30|website=North Dakota Studies}}</ref>

== References ==
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[[Category:Smallpox vaccines]]

{{Sourceattribution|Indian Vaccination Act of 1832}}