In the Coastal First Nations newsletter Talking Stick, Hilistis (Pauline Waterfall) notes the times created by Covid-19 are not exactly "unprecedented" for First Nations:
To subscribe to this notion is to deny or negate the previous pandemics that First Nations peoples have experienced historically. In 1780-82, 1831-34, 1862-63, 1888-89 smallpox epidemics had catastrophic impacts upon First peoples in B.C. and across Canada greatly reducing previous numbers of people who didn’t have immunity against this dreaded disease.Image: A Nax Nox mask depicting smallpox. Photo from the Museum of Vancouver archives. Catalogue number: AA 84, reproduced in Talking Stick.
