Tuberculosis Death and Survival among Southern California Indians, 1922–44

According to Death Registers kept by agents of the Office of Indian Affairs, between 1922 and 1946, Cahuilla, Kumeyaay, Cupeño, Luiseño, Serrano, and Chemehuevi people of the Mission Indian Agency of Southern California suffered 180 recorded deaths caused by tuberculosis, the leading cause of death resulting from infectious disease. Nearly half of those who perished were between the ages of 15 and 39. The leading "occupation" of those who died was "child/student." Throughout the period under examination, Indians had much higher crude death rates per 100,000 population than did all people in the United States. In 1926, the Native death rate reached its zenith of 661, compared to 86 among all races within the United States. Death rates among First Nations people in Southern California declined during the 1930s and dropped off dramatically during the 1940s due to public health efforts of field nurses and teachers as well as the agency of Indian elders who taught children about the causes, transmissions, treatment, and prevention of tuberculosis.