Here Comes Trouble - Michael Moore [28]
The following day Silas paid a visit to the chief and thanked him and the members of his tribe for protecting his wife and his newborn son. The chief said it was his duty to protect all life in the area. He gave Silas a wood carving in honor of his son being born. Silas was grateful and again thanked the chief and his men.
Not all the white people in the area maintained the same friendly relations with the Indians as did Silas Moore. Some were downright scared of them and wanted nothing to do with the “red beasts.” Others would muse about how much better Elba would be without them. Silas would listen to none of this, and he would get angry at this sort of talk. This, in turn, caused some to be suspicious of Silas, and when the first elections in Elba were held the next year, Silas found himself on the losing side.
The following autumn, the Indians on the west side of Lake Neppessing came down with the measles. If there was one threat the native peoples had little defense against, it was the diseases that the white people brought with them. Measles, mumps, chicken pox, influenza, tuberculosis, smallpox—they killed both whites and Indians without mercy, but by the nineteenth century, Europeans had developed certain immunities within their bodies so that many could withstand a bout of the flu or the measles.
Not so the American Indian. Because there had not been centuries to build up such an immunity, the Indians were quickly felled when a virus spread through their community. When the British, who had a desire to rid the new land of the Indians, saw how easily the Indians would get sick, it was not a violation of their moral code to lace blankets or water with these diseases to wipe out whole Indian encampments.
When word spread through Elba that the Chippewa had the measles, the settlers set up an immediate quarantine and forbade any white person to have contact with any Indian. This did not sit well with Silas.
The Indians would send runners to the quarantine line and beg for help. Their people were dying. They needed food and medicine. They were told by the white settlers that there was nothing the people of Elba could do but pray for them.
Silas believed in prayer, but not in prayer alone. Disobeying the edict, he took his canoe out into the middle of Lake Neppessing. Once there he waved and shouted to the Indians on the other shore. Those who were well enough came out of their lodges and waved back. He motioned for them to come out onto the lake to meet him. Two of the Chippewa, one of whom was the chief, got into a canoe and paddled out to meet Silas. As they got closer he motioned for them to not come any farther.
“I am here to help,” he said, his voice raised so they could hear him. “I am here to help. How many of you are sick?”
“Many,” said the chief. “Some die. The rest, we need food and supplies.”
“I will see what I can do. Meet me here tomorrow at this time.”
Silas went back to his side of the lake. He told Caroline of the predicament the Indians were in.
“I’m going to see what I can gather up from the others,” he said.
Silas rode around to the families in the Elba area to collect food and provisions to give to the Indians. Most contributed, even those who had spoken ill of the tribe before. There were those who thought Silas was taking an unnecessary chance, and they warned him that if they believed he was coming down with the measles himself, they would send him to the quarantine area to live with the Indians.
The next day Silas paddled out to the middle of Lake Neppessing. Behind him he towed another canoe full of food and supplies. The chief and a half-dozen men were already waiting on the lake.
“I will leave this here. You take everything.” The Indians paddled toward it and unloaded the provisions into their canoes.
“In two days, I will bring more food. Our doctor is also bringing some of our medicine for you. You might wish to try it.”
Two days later, Silas filled what he could into his canoe and went back out to meet