DISEASES OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST

 

 

Rodney Stubbs
March 18, 2006
NewsWithViews.com

In my life I have had the privilege of meeting and dining with great people. George H.W. Bush (Vice President), Alan Sheppard (Astronaut) and Joseph Loftus (One of 12 founding members of NASA.) One of my favorite was the late Dr. Madeleine Cosman, Ph.D. We met several years ago at a Freedom 21 conference in Reno, NV. Madeleine was a co-writer for NewsWithViews.com a web news service published daily. To date NewsWithViews has more than 10 million hits per month and continues to grow.

ABC News reported March 13, 2006 that birds infected with the Bird Flu virus have migrated from Asia to Alaska where they will begin to mingle with birds of the Northwestern flyway. By fall, according to Micahel Levitt, Secretary of Health and Human Services, the infected birds will migrate into the Continental United States. Those birds that migrate from the North frequently land throughout the Willamette Valley. Even today, you can see large flocks wintering in the pastures and fields of Salem, OR.

Madeleine wrote a series of articles that I want to share with you as you begin to think about preparations. One of those articles deals with Freedom a concept we seem to forget about as we move through our lives.

In ancient times when plagues spread over the land people learned to pray and seek the forgiveness of God. That will soon be the case here in Salem.

We need to remove the pagan symbols of a secular society namely the United Nations flag from the plaza at City Hall. We will find better solace by resorting to our Christian foundations that founded Salem and Willamette University in the 1800s.

Members of the Native American tribes populated the Willamette Valley, long before Lewis and Clark's arrival in the Northwest. With few exceptions, these people disappeared from the face of the earth and only their vacant homes were visible as Lewis and Clark meandered among the ruins after a great plague swept through the valley in the late 1700s. By the time Jason Lee arrived, there were very few survivors of the First Nation.

When the wagon trains of the 1847 traveled across the plains bound for the Willamette Valley, they carried another dreaded disease: Measles. Some stopped at the Whitman Mission before continuing over the trail to the Cascades. The entire Cayuse Nation was infected and rebelled at the Whitman Mission killing Rev. Whitman and his family were killed.

Part of the wagon train that visited the Whitman Mission in the fall of 1847 traveled over the Cascades and arrived in Salem. The measles spread to a large encampment of Klickitat Indians that were wintering along the Willamette River. The encampment stretched from Marion Square to North Mill Creek where 400 to 500 Native Americans contracted the disease. According to historical accounts, over half of encampment died that winter. According to historical accounts, their remains buried in a mass grave near the Amphitheater that now occupies the Riverfront Park in downtown Salem. Nothing is left of their memory except for the research this writer has uncovered over the course of the past 10 years. To my knowledge, there is only one account of this story found in the Marion County Historical Society publication.

This is not the first time disease has depopulated this part of the Pacific Northwest, and by all indications it will not be the last time. As our children no longer have the knowledge of "BE PREPARED" because of the politically correct attitude toward the Scouts, we owe it to the children to inform them of the dangers they face and value of prayer.

© 2006 Rodney R. Stubbs. All rights reserved.