The Great Dying isn't a thing; there isn't a singular event but a whole series of events occurring over several centuries in different locations. In these previous posts, I discuss the contemporary accounts for the influenza and smallpox outbreaks among the Wendat (Huron) in 1637 and 1639, and, very briefly, Pretty-Shield's account of the smallpox outbreak among the Crow in the 1870s.

If you are interested in Native North American records of epidemic disease, check out my previous post on references to epidemics in Plains Winter Counts. As Reedstilt indicated, population decline in North America was the result of many factors, not just disease. Famine, warfare, population displacement, territorial restriction, and social upheaval all worked in concert to decrease host immunity to introduced infectious organisms, and all worked together prevent demographic recovery after epidemics. For an investigation of the "death by disease alone" myth check out this previous post.