Country of PoxesCountry of Poxes is the story of land theft in North America through three diseases: syphilis, smallpox and tuberculosis. These infectious diseases reveal that medical care, widely considered a magnanimous cornerstone of the Canadian state, developed in lockstep with colonial control over Indigenous land and life. Pathogens are storytellers of their time. The 500 year old debate over the origins of syphilis reflects colonial judgments of morality and