TALK:1770S PACIFIC NORTHWEST SMALLPOX EPIDEMIC

A fact from 1770s Pacific Northwest smallpox epidemic appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 29 March 2024 ( check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that a massive smallpox epidemic struck the Pacific Northwest shortly before historical records were kept?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2024/March. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/1770s Pacific Northwest smallpox epidemic.

Wikipedia

Medicine Low‑importance

	Medicine portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Medicine, which recommends that medicine-related articles follow the Manual of Style for medicine-related articles and that biomedical information in any article use high-quality medical sources. Please visit the project page for details or ask questions at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Medicine.MedicineWikipedia:WikiProject MedicineTemplate:WikiProject Medicinemedicine articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Death Low‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Death, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Death on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.DeathWikipedia:WikiProject DeathTemplate:WikiProject DeathDeath articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Disaster management Low‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Disaster management, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Disaster management on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Disaster managementWikipedia:WikiProject Disaster managementTemplate:WikiProject Disaster managementDisaster management articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

United States Low‑importance

	United States portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the United States of America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions. Template Usage Articles Requested! Become a Member Project Talk Alerts United StatesWikipedia:WikiProject United StatesTemplate:WikiProject United StatesUnited States articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Canada Low‑importance

	Canada portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Canada, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Canada on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.CanadaWikipedia:WikiProject CanadaTemplate:WikiProject CanadaCanada-related articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Indigenous peoples of North America Low‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Indigenous peoples of North America, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Native Americans, Indigenous peoples in Canada, and related indigenous peoples of North America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Indigenous peoples of North AmericaWikipedia:WikiProject Indigenous peoples of North AmericaTemplate:WikiProject Indigenous peoples of North AmericaIndigenous peoples of North America articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by AirshipJungleman29 talk 11:38, 23 March 2024 (UTC) reply

(

Comment or view
Article history

)

... that a massive smallpox epidemic struck the Pacific Northwest shortly before historical records were kept? Source: Boyd, Robert (1999). The Coming of the Spirit of Pestilence: Introduced Infectious Diseases and Population Decline among Northwest Coast Indians, 1774-1874, pp. 21-22
- Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Dumb Woman's Lane

Moved to mainspace by Generalissima ( talk). Self-nominated at 19:41, 4 February 2024 (UTC). Post-promotion hook changes for this nom will be logged at Template talk:Did you know nominations/1770s Pacific Northwest smallpox epidemic; consider watching this nomination, if it is successful, until the hook appears on the Main Page. reply

General: Article is new enough and long enough
New enough: Long enough:

Policy: Article is sourced, neutral, and free of copyright problems
Adequate sourcing: Neutral: Free of copyright violations, plagiarism, and close paraphrasing:

Hook: Hook has been verified by provided inline citation
Cited: Interesting:

QPQ: Done.

Overall: Good work on this article! I'll assume that the offline source has the information in the hook. :) ~ Tails Wx ( 🐾, me!) 03:31, 5 February 2024 (UTC) reply

@ Generalissima: I am unable to confirm the hook in this article. Lightburst ( talk) 05:49, 6 February 2024 (UTC) reply

@ Generalissima: Please address the above. Z1720 ( talk) 02:30, 1 March 2024 (UTC) reply

@ Lightburst:@ Z1720: I'm a bit confused by this; I feel the hook is a fairly plain summary of the first two sentences of the Historical accounts section within the article: "A severe paucity of sources limits research into the spread and effects of the pandemic. No European explorers directly witnessed the pandemic, only writing about their effects. Anthropologist Robert T. Boyd describes the epidemic as existing in a "shadowy period at the juncture of the protohistoric and historic eras", occurring almost immediately prior to sustained European presence in the Pacific Northwest." Generalissima ( talk) 20:13, 1 March 2024 (UTC) reply

@ Lightburst: Can you please clarify your concerns? Z1720 ( talk) 18:32, 14 March 2024 (UTC) reply

Sorry, I have been editing sporadically, I will step aside for another promotor to fact check the hook. Lightburst ( talk) 18:14, 20 March 2024 (UTC) reply

If the article says what I think it says, then as far as I can tell it directly contradicts the hook: "The 1770s epidemic was the most devastating and widespread of all recorded epidemics among the Northwest Coast natives, as well as the first recorded. A virgin soil epidemic, it spread rapidly across a population which had no prior immunity to the disease." Am I missing something?-- Laun chba ller 08:20, 22 March 2024 (UTC) reply

It was the first recorded, but all recording was done post-hoc, by European explorers witnessing the aftermath some years or decades after the fact. Hence, before written records were kept. Generalissima ( talk) (it/she) 15:03, 22 March 2024 (UTC) reply

Good enough for me. Let's roll.-- Launchballer ( talk) 16:31, 22 March 2024 (UTC) reply

Did you know nomination

Did you know nomination

Videos

Websites

Encyclopedia

Facebook