The readings for this week were based on the effect on the First Nations people when the Gold Rush occurred. The articles talk about the spreading of smallpox amongst First Nations communities. This epidemic also connected to the events that happened in the “Great Canadian Mystery” that was done in class this week. Both of these events occurred in the Cariboo Region of British Columbia.

While the Gold rush was occurring there was a rapidly increase of people in the Cariboo Region. Many of which coming from the California Gold Rush, this meant the most of the people were transient individuals trying to make a quick dollar. During this time in History there were very few people living in Western Canada except for aboriginal people. With the Aboriginals having very little to no interaction to Europeans when the gold rush occurred it was major culture shock. The Europeans brought many things along with them including smallpox. With the introduction of small pox it caused many entire groups of people. Small pox was the reason why as high as 90% of the population was wiped out in parts of BC.