American Indian Culture and Research Journal

The purpose of this paper is to develop more fully for the Southern Coast Salish the recently published chronology that describes and analyzes the effects of European-introduced diseases and illnesses on the aboriginal populations of the Northwest Coast. A brief description of aboriginal population estimates and social structure is followed by a discussion of the nature of indigenous diseases and illnesses; last we present an analysis of the impact of introduced sicknesses on population, social structure, ceremonialism, and other aspects of traditional Southern Coast Salish culture. The impetus for this research stems from two sources. First, after the completion of an ethnographic study of the contemporary health care system and the lay health care-seeking strategies of the Puyallup tribal community in Tacoma, Washington, we were interested in assessing the impact of introduced diseases, illnesses, and Western medicine on the tribal societies of the area. We were searching for answers to the following questions: Under what set of situations did the contemporary health care beliefs and practices of the Indian people arise from the aboriginal context? Why did these changes occur?