to convey the smallpox to the indians. Viz: 2 Blankets; 1 silk hankerchef and 1 linnen."
This is from a journal kept by a WIlliam Trent, who ran a trading firm. (Trent was also "commander of the local militia of the townspeople of Pittsburgh during Pontiac's seige" of Fort Pitt). Philip Ranlet, in an article called "The British, the Indians, and Smallpox: What Actually Happened at Fort Pitt in 1763?" says that it was a "Captain Simeon Ecuyer, Fort Pitt's commander, and other British officers" who approved the payment of that claim. Perhaps the officers were Pynchon's General Bouquet and General Gage.
There is no doubt that Bouquet intended to infect the Indians. On 13 July 1763, Bouquet wrote to Lord Jeffery Amherst, commanding general of British forces in North America at the time, " I will try to inocculate the the Indians by means of Blankets that may fall in their hands, taking care however not to get the disease myself. As it is pity to oppose good men against them, I wish we could make use of the Spaniard's Method, and hunt them with english dogs, supported by Rangers, and some Light Horse, who would I think effectively extirpate or remove that Vermine."
Three days later, Amherst replied, "You will do well to try to Innoculate the Indians by means of Blanketts, as well as to try Every other method that can serve to Extirpate this Execrable Race. I should be very glad your Scheme for Hunting them Down by Dogs could take Effect effect, but England is at too great a Distance to think of that at present."
(Lord Jeffrey Amherst)
Ten days after that, Bouquet wrote back: "Sir, I received yesterday your Excellency's letters of 16th with their Inclosures. The signal for Indian Messengers, and all your directions will be observed."
It's funny how some sources on the net mention the Bouquet-Amherst correspondence, while others mention that Trent invoice, but I don't think I found any who put the two together. But when you connect the dots, you have the highest ranking British officer telling Bouquet to infect the Indians with blankets, then you have Trent's invoice for the blankets, and finally, the British government actually repaying him for the blankets.
So you have the British government officially planning deliberate genocide by way of biological warfare, perhaps the first instance of biological warfare on the continent. Buffy Saint-Marie may have take a lot of poetic license, but she got the basic thrust of the matter right. And so, you can reduce you white guilt by about one percent (and gain a plenury indulgence) by listening to her invective-drenched diatribe in its entirety: