Tag Archives: NN Cannery History Project
Remembering 1919, one hundred years later, the Spanish flu hit Bristol Bay, and the salmon run collapsed.
“The Spanish flu arrived to Alaska in 1918 and devastated the population.,, People thought it had run its course that winter, but when cannery ships arrived in 1919, people were quickly becoming sick, it was evidenced it was influenza, and it devastated not just the Native population, it killed many people who lived here, but it really changed the demographics in this region.” Within weeks of the start of the 1919 fishing season, hundreds of cannery workers and locals were infected with the Spanish flu. The virus wiped out most of the adult population in many villages around Bristol Bay, leaving behind dozens of orphaned children. One of the communities most changed by the outbreak was Naknek. >click to read< 22:05
