When I was growing up, “rubella baby” was a term that everyone in our community knew. The worldwide 1963–1965 epidemic of German measles hit Michigan so hard that the Michigan School for the Deaf had to start up a special unit for preschoolers who’d been born both deaf and blind. Their mothers had been exposed to the virus during their first trimester of pregnancy, writes Lois Beardslee, an author and tribal member who lives in Leelanau County. Epidemics often hit Michigan’s Native American communities harder than other communities, because the culture of northern Michigan in the first half of the 20th century dictated closing off roads to infected Indian communities, not even letting in doctors. Vaccinating one’s children should be an important social obligation that transcends economic cultural affiliations.
