The Mi'kmaq were immune?

[wcarlson]

One thing I found interesting and sort of confusing in this section was that the Iroquois first nations were wiped out after the first war due to diseases but the Mi'kmaq consistently pestered the English and lasted well into the third war. How were they able to keep fighting for the french without catching the diseases the Europeans brought over? Could the Mi'kmaq somehow have come into presences with these diseases earlier which caused them to already have antibodies? I didn't really understand this when I read it because I thought that most of the first nations died of diseases. My only other thought is that maybe they still fought for the French even though they were suffering from diseases at the same time.

[Mr. Delainey]

Disease didn't kill everybody obviously. In terms of the Mikmac, it is not impossible that they had more resistance to the disease brought over by the Europeans. They did live and intermingle and intermarry with the French for well over a hundred years before the English came; it's not impossible that there was some "herd immunity" as it's called.

I think it would be perhaps an error to over-generalize and think what happens to most also happens to the few. That make sense? This is called a false dichotomy, i.e. If one is true (all die) then the other (the few die) must be true.