The Great Death

The great death occurred in 1918 when the first Euro Americans came into Alaska. Bringing with them many diseases, and killing 60 percent of the Alaskan Native population. Leaving almost whole villages deveasted and almost empty.There were so many dead people the survivors had to abandon the the villages. People Started turing on the Shamans because they too, where dying, and were being proven useless. Shamans were the villages' doctors and healers. So the Native's turn to the Euro Americans for help. The Euro Americans told the Natives that everything they had been doing such as dancing, mask making, and ect. was evil. They also told the Natives that their people had probably went to hell. So, the Alaskan Natives turned over power to the "white people." They had become civilized. Their children were forced to go to boarding schools, stop speaking their native language, and wear western clothing. http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?s=8862473