Overview: In the third chapter of Lies, Loewen describes the decimation of Native Americans at the hands of European diseases while dismantling the mythos that surrounds the first Thanksgiving. The image above is in Lies as well, accompanying a graphic description of how pandemics of smallpox would tear the skin off of their Native victims. The takeaway from this chapter is that there was much European settlement and contact prior to the landing at Plymouth Rock that cleared the way for a very easy settlement there, which also would not have been possible without immediate and constant native support.
Screencast: Screencast 6
Big Question: How do we approach subjects like native decimation with young students?
Interactive Site: The site linked here is not necessarily interactive, but provides some interesting perspectives on native decimation in the Americas via disease, including a source that seems to contradict Lowen's assertions that Native Americans were, by and large, healthy and clean people upon European arrival in the "new" world. It also addresses the question of why no "new" world plagues (what the author dubs "Ameripox") invaded the Old World.
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