The Coming of the Spirit of PestilenceExamines imported diseases and their impact on Pacific Northwest Indigenous peoples In the late 1700s when European colonizers arrived on the Northwest Coast, they reported the presence of vigorous, diverse culturesTlingit, Haida, Kwakwakawakw (Kwakiutl), Nuu chah nulth (Nootka), Coast Salish, and Chinookanwith a population conservatively estimated at more than 180,000. Just a century later the population had plummeted to only 35,000a devastating loss