i did see one idea - more of a conjecture - that the Native American population was significantly higher before European cilization arrived. However, it wasn't right before white people came. it was many centuries before. and i think the anthropologists beleived that many Indians died at that earlier time because of some sort of epidemic.
Pete2
This is news to me - an overall population peak decimated by some mysterious disease "many centuries" before European contact. True, there is good evidence for population fluctuations in different areas over time. For instance, it looks like populations declined in southern California 6000 years ago or so, but this seems to correlate with unfavorable climate conditions, rather than a postulated epidemic of some sort.
Is there any more information on this notion?
Remember, population estimates are very tricky. Just because you don't find evidence of people doesn't mean that they weren't there.....
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