this post was submitted on 10 Jan 2024
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Yes indeed. I have multiple references to that one instance at Fort Pitt in my thread which historians believe to be bullshit. To be clear, this is the one verified attempt we can point to since dude replaced a couple of blankets and a scarf later which came from the smallpox ward. As you said, there's no possibility he was able to spread it that way. It's just not how smallpox works. Any smallpox already in the native population was due to contracting it conventionally exacerbated by the closeness of combat in warfare.
Blankets with smallpox was never a thing that decimated swaths of natives. Smallpox was able to do that all on it's own. People weren't handing them out left and right trying to kill natives. The US government did that all on their own through widespread genocide and cultural erasure.
Blankets with smallpox, was never a thing to deserve it's cult childish joking status like everyone likes to pretend it did. People repeat it because it sounds plausible and it's essentially a historical ear worm.
Settlers weren't handing them out trying to kill people. The US government didn't have a policy to use them to trick natives. None of it was a thing.
E: Clarity.
I scanned your links and there was refutation of Churchill's claim about Plains indians and blankets but there was no refutation of Pitt. Your links only showed corroborating evidence that Pitt happened.
The attempt was made, that's verified. The actual ability to give someone smallpox via blankets is bullshit. I might have made that more clear. Apologies.
Huh? My own post? Yeah, it reads the same to me. It's the one verified instance that scientists believed is almost entirely made up. You cannot give people smallpox with blankets. It is the ONE verified instance of a dude trying to give natives smallpox from blankets that came from a smallpox ward.
Blankets with smallpox is not a widespread thing. It's not even a rare thing. It was a literal one time thing attempted by a US Officer that didn't work because that's not how smallpox works. It's bullshit. Straight up. The sauce is literally directly below it.
E: Edited both for clarity though. You aren't the first to confuse that. Thanks.