disease was likely spread via the travels of the Shoshone Indian tribes. Beginning in 1780 it reached the Pueblos of the territory comprising present day New Mexico. It also showed up in the interior trading posts of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1782. It affected nearly every tribe on the continent, including the northwestern coast. It is estimated to have killed nearly 11,000 Native Americans in the Western area of present-day Washington, reducing the population from 37,000 to 26,000 in just seven years. Quarantine methods Though there was not too much known about viruses and their transitions, English colonists in North America recognized the effectiveness of isolating individuals infected with smallpox. The English colonies were more aware of the features of smallpox than of almost any other infectious disease. It was widely recognized that there were only two options for protecting oneself against this disease, quarantine or inoculation against the disease. Many feared inoculation, and instead chose isolation via quarantine. Individuals with recognized infections were sent to remote locations where they could let the disease run its course without the fear of infecting others. If needed, the scale of the quarantine could be increased. This meant cutting off entire towns from the rest of the colonies for the duration of the disease. Members of the English colonies as well as English officials were proactive in establishing quarantine guidelines in order to protect the public. One of the earliest recorded examples of this was a quarantine established in 1647 by Puritans in order to prevent the spread of disease from ships coming from the Caribbean. In 1731 an act, entitled "An Act to Prevent Persons From Concealing the Smallpox", was passed. This act made the heads of households mandatory reporters for smallpox; these individuals were required to report smallpox in their house to the selectmen of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Infected households would then be indicated with the placement of a red flag. In South Carolina, sentinels were to be posted outside infected households and infectious notices were required to be posted. In many colonies islands were set up to quarantine individuals coming in by ship. This decreased the chances of smallpox being introduced via trade or travel. By the late 1700s, almost all colonies had quarantine laws in effect in order to diminish the hugely damaging effects that smallpox could have on their communities. Upon taking charge of the Continental