April 16, 2021 3:40 a.m.

Roseburg Public Library will have an upcoming streaming event focusing on an aspect of Oregon history.

Director Kris Wiley said the program is titled, “Germs, Guns, and Removal as Weapons of Genocide in Western Oregon”. Jeffrey Ostler, Professor of Northwest and Pacific History at the University of Oregon will lead the event on Thursday May 20th at 6:30 p.m.

Wiley said in the 1830s, when a devastating malaria epidemic swept through Indigenous communities in western Oregon, Native people blamed an American trader for intentionally inflicting what they called “the cold sick”. Wiley said to understand why Native people believed Americans were responsible for the disease, Professor Ostler looks at the often-violent history of their interactions with Americans and other Europeans. Professor Ostler will also discuss how Native communities continued to be subject to violence and force removal in the 1850s.

To view the live-streamed event, go to: https://www.facebook.com/roseburglibrary

Speaker questions may be submitted in advance to: kwiley@cityofroseburg.org or by calling 492-7051.