sorry but I can’t tolerate Natives being anti-vax. thousands, MILLIONS, of our ancestors died literally because they were denied access to vaccines and antibiotics for completely preventable diseases. the smallpox vaccine has existed since the 1700s. tuberculosis is easily cured

by antibiotics, yet Native sanatariums weren’t allowed access to them for decades, and countless Natives died because of this. they experimented with absurd alternate treatments on Natives when they confidently knew of safe effective treatments for these diseases.

Medical racism against Natives was about DENIAL of effective vaccines and treatments; refusing them now that we have access to them is an insult to our ancestors. sorry if this is an unpopular opinion but this shit is so dangerous.

Do you know how many of our ancestors’ lives would’ve been saved if they’d had access to the effective vaccines and treatments that only white people were allowed to get for CENTURIES? Do you realize the huge positive effect that would’ve had on our history??

so yes I will gladly take the vaccines for these diseases because I believe it is the utmost responsibility and loving act I can give to my ancestors and loved ones who can’t get vaccines for one reason or another.

*choosing* to not get a vaccine for no legitimate reason besides right wing propaganda is not “just your choice” because it puts everyone around you in danger. freedom extends as far as your are not harming others & restricting their freedom.

be suspicious of treatments that are only given to BIPOC. that’s your indicator of medical racism. when we’re getting things only white people had access to before, it’s a safe bet that it’s safe.

sorry i’m just really mad rn. several times now I’ve had other Natives act like i’m doing the wrong thing for us by getting vaccines when it’s literally one of the best things I can do.

on a similar subject, i wanna address the way some settler historians try to deny that colonizers are responsible for the deaths of millions of Indigenous people by disease because they “didn’t know they were spreading them.” FALSE.

the term “quarantine” comes from the italian “quaranta” which means 40. this was bc during the black plague, ships arriving in venice were not allowed to dock for 40 days after their arrival to prevent transmission of the plague.

this means that YES, europeans did know - centuries before colonization - that diseases are spread by coming in contact with infected people.

conquistadors and settlers knew they could spread horrible diseases like smallpox, measles, etc. by not quarantining when infected.

they purposely, and perhaps carelessly, did not make any effort to quarantine or prevent the spread to Natives because they 1. did not care if Natives died and 2. viewed it as a tactical advantage when Indigenous ppl suffered outbreaks of diseases and

3. they believe Natives, Africans, East and West Asians, and all other Indigenous peoples were “stained” and worth less because they didn’t “accept Jesus.” even Muslims and Jews who converted to christianity were still viewed as lesser than because they believed

they somehow “passed on” their previous “rejection of Jesus” to their descendants.

tl;dr colonizers absolutely knew they were spreading small pox & other diseases to Indigenous peoples and did absolutely nothing to try and prevent it, which makes them responsible for their deaths

which brings me to my overall point: if you know how to prevent the spread of deadly diseases and just chose not to, you are responsible for spreading it to others, even if you didn’t actively cough in their faces to try and infect them.