Population history of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas: Difference between revisions

The Indigenous population of the Americas in 1492 was not necessarily at a high point and may actually have already been in decline in some areas. Indigenous populations in most areas of the Americas reached a low point by the early 20th century.<ref>Thornton, pp. xvii, 36.</ref>

 

 

While it is difficult to determine exactly how many Natives lived in North America before Columbus,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Snow |first=D. R. |title=Microchronology and Demographic Evidence Relating to the Size of Pre-Columbian North American Indian Populations |journal=Science |date=16 June 1995 |volume=268 |issue=5217 |pages=1601–1604 |doi=10.1126/science.268.5217.1601 |pmid=17754613 |bibcode=1995Sci...268.1601S |s2cid=8512954}}</ref> estimates range from 3.8&nbsp;million, as mentioned above, to 7 million<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9iQYSQ9y60MC |title=American Indian holocaust and survival: a population history since 1492 |last=Thornton |first=Russell |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |year=1990 |isbn=978-0-8061-2220-5 |pages=26–32}}</ref> people to a high of 18 million.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Their Number Become Thinned: Native American Dynamics in Eastern North America |last=Dobyns |first=Henry |publisher=University of Tennessee Press |year=1983 |location=Knoxville}}</ref> Scholars vary on the estimated size of the [[Indigenous peoples in Canada|Indigenous population]] in [[Territorial evolution of Canada|what is now Canada]] prior to colonization and on the effects of [[European colonization of the Americas|European contact]].<ref name="HainesSteckelau">{{cite book|author1=Michael R. Haines|author2=Richard H. Steckel|title=A Population History of North America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BPdgiysIVcgC&pg=PA12|year=2000|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-49666-7|page=12}}</ref> During the late 15th century is estimated to have been between 200,000<ref name="NorthcottWilson2008"/> and two million,<ref name="HainesSteckel2000">{{cite book|author1=Michael R. Haines|author2=Richard H. Steckel|title=A Population History of North America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BPdgiysIVcgC&pg=PA13|year=2000|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-49666-7|page=13}}</ref> with a figure of 500,000 currently accepted by Canada's Royal Commission on Aboriginal Health.<ref name="BaileySturtevant2008">{{cite book|author1=Garrick Alan Bailey|author2=William C ... Sturtevant|author3=Smithsonian Institution (U S )|title=Handbook of North American Indians: Indians in Contemporary Society|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z1IwUbZqjTUC&pg=PA285|year=2008|publisher=Government Printing Office|isbn=978-0-16-080388-8|page=285}}</ref> Although not without conflict, [[Euro-Canadian|European Canadians]]' early interactions with [[First Nations in Canada|First Nations]] and [[Inuit]] populations were relatively peaceful.<ref name="Preston2009a">{{cite book|author=David L. Preston|title=The Texture of Contact: European and Indian Settler Communities on the Frontiers of Iroquoia, 1667–1783|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L-9N6-6UCnoC&pg=PA43|year=2009|publisher=U of Nebraska Press|isbn=978-0-8032-2549-7|pages=43–44}}</ref> However repeated outbreaks of European [[infectious disease]]s such as [[influenza]], [[measles]] and [[smallpox]] (to which they had no natural immunity),<ref name="DeanMatthews1998sw">{{cite book|author1=William G. Dean|author2=Geoffrey J. Matthews|title=Concise Historical Atlas of Canada|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dw39BoD0-6cC&pg=PA2|year=1998|publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=978-0-8020-4203-3|page=2}}</ref> combined with other effects of European contact, resulted in a twenty-five percent to eighty percent Indigenous population decrease post-contact.<ref name="NorthcottWilson2008">{{cite book|author1=Herbert C. Northcott|author2=Donna Marie Wilson|title=Dying And Death in Canada|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p_pMVs53mzQC&pg=PA25|year=2008|publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=978-1-55111-873-4|pages=25–27}}</ref> Roland G Robertson suggests that during the late 1630s, smallpox killed over half of the [[Wyandot people|Wyandot (Huron)]], who controlled most of the early [[North American fur trade]] in the area of [[New France]].<ref name="Robertson2001">{{cite book|author=R. G. Robertson|title=Rotting Face: Smallpox and the American Indian|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-EoEm_OO8RgC|year=2001|publisher=University of Nebraska|isbn=978-0-87004-497-7}}</ref> In 1871 there was an enumeration of the Indigenous population within the limits of Canada at the time, showing a total of only 102,358 individuals.<ref name=aboriginal>{{cite web|url=http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/98-187-x/4151278-eng.htm |title=Censuses of Canada 1665 to 1871: Aboriginal peoples |publisher=Statistics Canada |year=2008 |access-date=2 February 2014}}</ref> From 2006 to 2016, the Indigenous population has grown by 42.5 percent, four times the national rate.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/171025/dq171025a-eng.htm |title=The Daily — Aboriginal peoples in Canada: Key results from the 2016 Census |first=Statistics Canada |last=Government of Canada |date=October 25, 2017 |website=www150.statcan.gc.ca}}</ref> According to the [[2011 Canadian census]], Indigenous peoples ([[First Nations in Canada|First Nations]] – 851,560, [[Inuit]] – 59,445 and [[Métis]] – 451,795) numbered at 1,400,685, or 4.3% of the country's total population.<ref name=firstnations>{{cite web|title=Aboriginal Peoples in Canada: First Nations People, Métis and Inuit|url=http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/nhs-enm/2011/as-sa/99-011-x/99-011-x2011001-eng.cfm|publisher=Statistics Canada|year=2012}}</ref>

|2009

|2.5

|–

|–

!scope="row"| 2

|SE Woodlands

|[[Choctaw]] {{refn|Extrapolated from 25,000 warriors (x5) in year 1718, according to Le Page du Pratz.|group=Note}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Krzywicki |first=Ludwik |url=https://dn790004.ca.archive.org/0/items/b29980112/b29980112.pdf |title=Primitive society and its vital statistics |publisher=Macmillan |year=1934 |series=Publications of the Polish Sociological Institute |location=London |pages=505–506}}</ref>

|125,000

!11

|NE Woodlands

|[[Shawnee]]

|50,000 – 15,000 (1702)

|Southwest

|Mexican Cession

|40,000

|1584

|1700

|

|[[George Bird Grinnell]]

|-

|1860

|

|[[Emmanuel Domenech]]<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Domenech |first=Emmanuel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nWkFAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA16 |title=Seven Years' Residence in the Great Deserts of North America |publisher=Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts |year=1860 |volume=2 |location=London |pages=16, 47–48}}</ref>

|-

|1860

|

|[[Emmanuel Domenech]]<ref name=":4" />

|-

|1823

|15+

|[[William H. Keating|W. H. Keating]] and [[Giacomo Beltrami|G. C. Beltrami]]

|-

! scope="row" | 25

|SE Woodlands

|[[Cherokee]] {{refn|They had 6,000 warriors in 1730–35 (according to J. Adair) and also 6,000 warriors in 1738, but just 5,000 in 1740 (according to Ga. Hist. Coll., II). Colonel [[James Oglethorpe]] confirms that they had 5,000 warriors in 1739 (Ga. Coll. Rec., V). Also according to Ga. Coll. Rec., V an epidemic reduced them "by almost one-half" in 1738, but this source doesn't specify how numerous they were before the epidemic. Perhaps this source exaggerates the casualties caused by that epidemic, and in fact it killed just around 1,000 warriors.|group=Note}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Krzywicki |first=Ludwik |url=https://dn790004.ca.archive.org/0/items/b29980112/b29980112.pdf |title=Primitive society and its vital statistics |publisher=Macmillan |year=1934 |series=Publications of the Polish Sociological Institute |location=London |pages=500–503}}</ref>

|30,000

!35

|SE Woodlands

|[[Mabila]] (Mobile)

|25,000

!38

|SE Woodlands

|[[Chickasaw]]

|20,000

|15,000

|1600

|

|[[Daniel Gookin]] and J. R. Swanton

|

|

|-

!60

|15,000

|1540

|

|Relacion del Suceso<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jenkins |first=Myra Ellen |date=1966 |title=Taos Pueblo and Its Neighbors, 1540–1847 |url=https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1933&context=nmhr |journal=New Mexico Historical Review |volume=41 |issue=2 |pages=86}}</ref>

|

|

|-

!68

|1584

|5+

|[[Antonio de Espejo]]

|-

|SE Woodlands

|Florida Purchase

|10,000

|1836

|

|Also known as Laurentians

|-

!88

|Subarctic & Arctic

|[[British Columbia]], Canada

|7,000

|1780

|

|

|-

!107

|6,000

|1584

|500+ houses

|[[Antonio de Espejo]]

|

|

|-

!116

|

|

|-

!118

!128

|SE Woodlands

|[[Yuchi]] (Uchee)

|5,000 – 2,500 (in 1777)

|

|

|-

!132

!144

|SE Woodlands

|[[Acolapissa]]

|3,500

|

|

|-

!150

!152

|SE Woodlands

|[[Alabama people|Alibamu]]

|3,000

|3,000

|1660

|

|-

!154

|NE Woodlands

|New England

|3,000

|1500

!164

|SE Woodlands

|[[Taposa]] and Ibitoupa

|3,000

|3,000

|1680

|

|[[Agustín de Vetancurt]]

|NE Woodlands

|Middle Colonies

|2,500

|1500

!184

|SE Woodlands

|[[Mosopelea|Ofo]], [[Koroa]] & Tioux (Tiou)

|2,450

|3

|

|-

!186

!187

|SE Woodlands

|[[Tunica people|Tunica]]

|2,250

|

|

|-

!190

|10

|

|-

!192

!194

|SE Woodlands

|[[Yazoo people|Yazoo]]

|2,000+

|

|

|-

!205

|

|

|-

!206

!209

|SE Woodlands

|[[Chakchiuma]]

|2,000

!235

|SE Woodlands

|Tohome

|1,500

|1,500

|1600

|

|-

!237

!242

|SE Woodlands

|[[Houma people|Houma]]

|1,225

!247

|SE Woodlands

|[[Taensa]]

|1,200

|21

|

|-

!252

!266

|SE Woodlands

|[[Biloxi people|Biloxi]]/[[Pascagoula]]/Moctobi

|1,000

!273

|SE Woodlands

|Dulchioni

|1,000

|-

!285

|SE Woodlands

|Southern Colonies

|[[James Mooney]]

|-

|Subarctic & Arctic

|[[Ontario]], Canada

|[[Michel Maray de La Chauvignerie|Michel de La Chauvignerie]]

|-

|Northwest Coast

|Oregon Country

|W. B. Gosnell

|-

|Northwest Coast

|Oregon Country

|Indian Affairs 1862

|-

|SE Woodlands

|Louisiana Purchase

|[[Louis-Narcisse Baudry Des Lozieres|Baudry de Lozieres]]

|-

|Subarctic & Arctic

|[[Northwest Territories]], Canada

|[[Émile Petitot|Emile Petitot]]

|-

|SE Woodlands

|Southern Colonies

|[[James Mooney]] & Carolina - The Native Americans<ref name="carolina" />

|-

|SE Woodlands

|Southern Colonies

|John Lawson, "History of Carolina"

|-

|SE Woodlands

|Southern Colonies

|[[James Mooney]] & Carolina - The Native Americans<ref name="carolina" />

|-

|SE Woodlands

|Southern Colonies

|[[James Mooney]] & Carolina - The Native Americans<ref name="carolina" />

|-

|Southwest

|Mexican Cession

|[[James Mooney]]

|-

|NE Woodlands

|New England

|[[John William De Forest]]

|-

|NE Woodlands

|New England

|Capers Jones<ref name=":2" />

|-

|Northwest Plateau

|Oregon Country

|[[James Mooney]]

|-

|NE Woodlands

|New England

|[[John William De Forest]]

|-

|SE Woodlands

|Southern Colonies

|Carolina - The Native Americans<ref name="carolina" />

|-

|SE Woodlands

|Southern Colonies

|Carolina - The Native Americans<ref name="carolina" />

|-

|SE Woodlands

|Southern Colonies

|[[James Mooney]] & Carolina - The Native Americans<ref name="carolina" />

|-

|SE Woodlands

|Southern Colonies

|[[James Mooney]] & Carolina - The Native Americans<ref name="carolina" />

|-

|SE Woodlands

|Southern Colonies

|[[James Mooney]] & Carolina - The Native Americans<ref name="carolina" />

|-

|Northwest Coast

|Oregon Country

|Myron Eells

|-

|Northwest Coast

|Oregon Country

|[[James Owen Dorsey]] and [[Ludwik Krzywicki]]

|-

|SE Woodlands

|Louisiana Purchase

|[[Ludwik Krzywicki]]

|-

|Northwest Coast

|Oregon Country

|[[James Owen Dorsey]] and [[Ludwik Krzywicki]]

|-

|SE Woodlands

|Southern Colonies

|[[William Strachey]] and [[John Smith (explorer)|John Smith]]

|-

|SE Woodlands

|Southern Colonies

|[[William Strachey]] and [[John Smith (explorer)|John Smith]]

|-

|NE Woodlands

|[[Quebec]], Canada

|[[Ludwik Krzywicki]]

|-

|SE Woodlands

|Southern Colonies

|[[John Smith (explorer)|John Smith]]

|-

|Subarctic & Arctic

|[[Yukon]], Canada

|[[Ludwik Krzywicki]]

|-

|Northwest Plateau

|[[British Columbia]], Canada

|[[Ludwik Krzywicki]]

|-

|SE Woodlands

|Southern Colonies

|[[John Smith (explorer)|John Smith]]

|-

|Great Plains

|Louisiana Purchase

|[[Peter Buell Porter]]

|-

|Northwest Coast

|[[British Columbia]], Canada

|[[Ludwik Krzywicki]]

|-

|SE Woodlands

|Southern Colonies

|[[John Smith (explorer)|John Smith]]

|-

|Great Plains

|Texas Annexation

|[[James Mooney]]

|-

|Northwest Coast

|Oregon Country

|[[Hall J. Kelley]]

|-

|Subarctic & Arctic

|[[British Columbia]], Canada

|[[James Mooney]]

|-

|Northwest Coast

|Oregon Country

|HBC Indian Census 1839

|-

|Northwest Coast

|Oregon Country

|[[Isaac Stevens|Isaac Ingalls Stevens]]

|-

|Northwest Coast

|Oregon Country

|[[James Mooney]]

|-

|Subarctic & Arctic

|[[British Columbia]], Canada

|F. W. Hodge

|-

|Northwest Plateau

|Oregon Country

|W. Robertson

|-

|Northwest Coast

|Oregon Country

|Hall J. Kelley

|-

|NE Woodlands

|New England

|[[James Mooney]]

|-

|SE Woodlands

|Louisiana Purchase

|[[John R. Swanton|J. R. Swanton]]

|-

|Northwest Coast

|Oregon Country

|[[James Mooney]]

|-

|Northwest Coast

|Oregon Country

|[[John Ross Browne]]

|-

|Northwest Coast

|[[British Columbia]], Canada

|HBC Indian Census 1839

|-

|Subarctic & Arctic

|[[British Columbia]], Canada

|[[James Mooney]]

|-

|Northwest Coast

|[[British Columbia]], Canada

|HBC Indian Census 1839

|-

|Northwest Coast

|[[British Columbia]], Canada

|R. Mayne

|-

|Northwest Coast

|Oregon Country

|[[Joseph Lane]]

|-

|Great Plains

|Louisiana Purchase

|H. M. Brackenridge

|-

|Subarctic & Arctic

|[[Nunavut]], Canada

|[[James Mooney]]

|-

|Northwest Coast

|Oregon Country

|[[James Mooney]]

|-

|Northwest Coast

|Oregon Country

|[[James Mooney]]

|-

|Subarctic & Arctic

|[[District of Mackenzie]], Canada

|[[James Mooney]]

|-

|Northwest Coast

|[[British Columbia]], Canada

|[[James Mooney]]

|-

|NE Woodlands

|Middle Colonies

|

|They lived in Delaware and Maryland

|-

|Northwest Plateau

|Oregon Country

|Indian Affairs 1858

|-

|SE Woodlands

|Louisiana Purchase

|[[Louis-Narcisse Baudry Des Lozieres|Baudry de Lozieres]]

|-

|Subarctic & Arctic

|[[District of Mackenzie]], Canada

|[[John R. Swanton]]

|-

|SE Woodlands

|Naniaba

|250

|Regis de Rouillet

|-

|Northwest Plateau

|Oregon Country

|W. Robertson

|-

|Northwest Plateau

|Oregon Country

|J. W. P. Huntington

|-

|SE Woodlands

|Louisiana Purchase

|[[Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville|Bienville]]

|-

|SE Woodlands

|Southern Colonies

|[[John Smith (explorer)|John Smith]]

|-

|Northwest Coast

|Oregon Country

|[[Lewis and Clark Expedition|Lewis and Clark]]

|-

|NE Woodlands

|Louisiana Purchase

|

|

|-

|Northwest Coast

|Oregon Country

|[[James Mooney]]

|-

|SE Woodlands

|Southern Colonies

|R. Evelin

|-

|SE Woodlands

|Louisiana Purchase

|[[Louis-Narcisse Baudry Des Lozieres|Baudry de Lozieres]]

|-

|SE Woodlands

|Southern Colonies

|Carolina - The Native Americans<ref name="carolina" />

|-

|Northwest Coast

|[[British Columbia]], Canada

|HBC Indian Census 1839

|-

|NE Woodlands

|[[Ontario]], Canada

|[[Jérôme Lalemant|J. Lalemant]]

|-

|Northwest Plateau

|[[British Columbia]], Canada

|[[Franz Boas]] & [[James Mooney|J. Mooney]]

|-

|Great Basin

|Mexican Cession

|[[James Mooney]]

|-

|Northwest Coast

|[[British Columbia]], Canada

|Canadian Indian Affairs

|-

|Northwest Plateau

|Oregon Country

|[[Joseph Lane]]

|-

|SE Woodlands

|Texas Annexation

|[[Herbert Eugene Bolton|H. E. Bolton]]

|-

|Northwest Coast

|Oregon Country

|Indian Affairs 1875

|-

|NE Woodlands

|Old Northwest

|N. Y. Col. Dcts., VI. 622

|-

|SE Woodlands

|Choula

|40

|[[Jean-Baptiste Bénard de la Harpe|Benard de La Harpe]]

|-

|California

|Mexican Cession

|

|

|-

|Subarctic & Arctic

|Alaska

|Steve Langdon<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sandberg |first=Eric |url=https://live.laborstats.alaska.gov/pop/estimates/pub/pophistory.pdf |title=A history of Alaska population settlement |publisher=Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development |year=2013 |pages=4–6}}</ref>

|}

 

== Pre-Columbian Americas ==

While epidemic disease was a leading factor of the population decline of the American Indigenous peoples after 1492, there were other contributing factors, all of them related to European contact and colonization. One of these factors was warfare. According to demographer Russell Thornton, although many people died in wars over the centuries, and war sometimes contributed to the near extinction of certain tribes, warfare and death by other violent means was a comparatively minor cause of overall native population decline.<ref>War not a major cause : Thornton, pp. 47–49.</ref>

 

 

There is some disagreement among scholars about how widespread warfare was in pre-Columbian America,<ref>{{cite book |author=W. D. Rubinstein |title=Genocide: A History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nMMAk4VwLLwC&pg=PA12 |year=2004 |publisher=Pearson Education |isbn=978-0-582-50601-5 |page=12}}</ref> but there is general agreement that war became deadlier after the arrival of the Europeans and their firearms.{{Citation needed|reason=Actually the scholarly consensus is that Amerindian warfare and violence was highly evolved prior to the arrival of Europeans. See War Before Civilization by Keeley. As well as North American Indigenous Warfare and Ritual Violence. Chacon Edit.|date=October 2019}} The South or Central American infrastructure allowed for thousands of European [[conquistador]]s and tens of thousands of their [[Indian auxiliaries]] to attack the dominant Indigenous civilization. Empires such as the [[Inca]]s depended on a highly centralized administration for the distribution of resources. Disruption caused by the war and the colonization hampered the traditional economy, and possibly led to shortages of food and materials.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/Inca_Government/ |title=Inca Government |last=Cartwright |first=Mark |date=Oct 2015 |website=[[World History Encyclopedia]] |publisher=Knights of Vatican |access-date=19 July 2017 |quote=Eventually 40,000 Incas would govern some 10 million subjects speaking over 30 different languages. Consequently, the centralised Inca government, employing a vast network of administrators, governed over a patchwork empire which, in practice, touched local populations to varying degrees.}}</ref> Across the western hemisphere, war with various Native American civilizations constituted alliances based out of both necessity or economic prosperity and, resulted in mass-scale intertribal warfare.<ref>{{cite book |author=W. D. Rubinstein |title=Indian Conquistadors: Indigenous Allies in the Conquest of Mesoamerica |year=2012 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press; Reprint edition |isbn=978-0-8061-4325-5 |page=1}}</ref> European colonization in the North American continent also contributed to a number of wars between Native Americans, who fought over which of them should have first access to new technology and weaponry—like in the [[Beaver Wars]].<ref>Increased deadliness of warfare, see for example Hanson, ch.&nbsp;6. See also [[flower war]].</ref>