Rotting Face

by Roland G. Robertson

The smallpox epidemic of 1837 38 forever changed the tribes of the Northern Plains. Before it ran out of human fuel, the disease claimed twenty thousand Native Americans. R. G. Robertson tells the story of this deadly virus with modern implications.

Genres: History

329 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2001

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the absolute worst book I've read dealing with issues or history revolving around Native people. The book is written in the most stereotypical language I have heard of being used in the last 30+ years with derogatory comments regarding supposedly inherent "scalping behaviors", general lifestyle, ignorance of American Indians not simply in not knowing but not being able to understand things, etc. I really hated reading this book because it kinda pissed me off. I was hoping for something good to come of it but it didn't. If nothing else it gave clear cut demonstration of the attitude many of the white traders had towards the Hidatsa, Mandan and Arikara that are the subject of the book though the author's own mindset. Clear demonstration of why it is best not to read the screwed up histories of a white, Western-history author. I was even more depressed to find out it was published through, if I remember correctly, the University of Oklahoma....really? How did this get published at all?

[Zorki1c · Rating 5 out of 5]

The academic elite won't have any use for this book because the author dispels the myth that Whites tried to kill off the Indians with smallpox--in fact that was the last thing the fur traders wanted to do. Robertson takes readers through the history of the disease and details how one sick crewman on one steamboat going up the Missouri River forever changed the balance of power among the tribes of the northern plains.

Probably the best book ever written on this subject. If you don't enjoy this book, you don't appreciate good writing and research and been exposed to too much politically correct pap that tries to hold our ancestors to modern standards of ethics.

[Wonderlandkat · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have really mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, it's beautifully researched and on a topic that there isn't much on. On the other hand, the writing leaves something to be desired (awkward, racist)....

E.g. "Having witnessed the death and misery brought about by the disease, the tribes along the central Missouri willingly extended their arms, eager for any white-made magic that would save them from the rotting face."


Um yeah. Also couldn't stop randomly interjecting rotting face for a couple of days after finishing this book. It's always in italic and on nearly every page in the last third of the book.

[Emily Brown · Rating 1 out of 5]

terribly written, very boring, not really about small pox, but very detailed descriptions of the trading posts.