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>