Due to the supposition, at the time, that the measles, then an unknown malady among the Indians, was really another form of smallpox--the diagnosis made didn't differ materially from the latter--the conclusion arrived at was to treat the disease accordingly.
A tireless and stubborn fight was waged by Chief Andres Lucero. Day and night he labored indefatigably, not only attending to his people, but also instructing other chieftains what to do and what to use, thus letting them share in his success in healing the sick.
Later on, the disease appeared in Twenty Nine Palms, in Borrego Valley, Indio, Coachella, Yuma, Temecula, Mojave, Tehachapi, Soboba--in fact, in all the small Indian settlements throughout the desert and mountain. Chief Andres Lucero was extremely satisfied with the results of his labors which had laid the cornerstone of knowledge and preparedness for the year of 1859, when a true epidemic of smallpox made its appearance again.
Investigations revealed that the scourge had started (_Temamaka_) to the north and had come (_Kichamba_) southward. Again the eye beheld the sad scenes of dead human bodies strewn along the valleys and mountains. The worst suffering was among the Indian tribes dwelling to the northward, who had shown a complete disregard of Chief Andres Chino Pablo, and paid no attention whatever to his messages and warnings.
However, the Chief stuck to his post until he saw his people safe. Those who died were comparatively few. The dead were those who, becoming panic-stricken through memories brought to their minds of former happenings, had fled into the desert. Had they but conquered their fears and obeyed the Chief's orders, nothing would have happened to them. Those were the victims of the plague--the deserters from the tribes. The smallpox was kept well under control in the settlements with only a two per cent death rate, which means practically nothing when compared with a previous death rate of fifty per cent caused by the same kind of plague. In some localities it rose to almost ninety per cent. Truly those were dark days indeed for the American Indians.
I shall now give, roughly, the medicinal plants used then and again in the same manner in the year 1918 when the "Black Plague," commonly known as "Spanish Influenza" was raging throughout the American continent and Europe. It was a strange coincidence, indeed, that a great many of those who escaped death from the enemy's bullets on the battlefield perished from the "Black Plague." The Indians, however, again won their battle against this frightful disease by the same means which had been employed against measles and smallpox with no loss of life whatsoever.