R. Boyd, disease, effect on NW language history?

[David D. Robertson]

This will be a disappointingly short message for some of you, and a
weirdly cryptic one for others.  I was just reading Bob Boyd's very good
book on disease epidemics and their effects on Pacific NW history since
contact with Euro-Americans (but some other gradual student recalled it &
I had to return it to the library).  Thoughts were triggered.
Depopulation due to disease...destabilization of indigenous language
communities...an opportunity for Chinook Jargon to take firmer hold than
it might otherwise have?  We've touched on such issues briefly in the
past.  I wonder whether any of you have thoughts on this now.