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Indian Tribes of the American Northwest
The Indians who lived in today’s northwestern United States represented three distinct cultures based on their geography. The arid, mountainous region of present-day Utah, Nevada, and southern Wyoming make up what archeologists refer to as the Great Basin. The tribes of the Plateau Culture lived directly to the north of this region. Those who lived along the Pacific coast—from northern California to southeastern Alaska—are referred to as the Northwest Coast Culture. These tribes were marked by contrasts in lifestyle, wealth, and power. These contrasts were caused by their different locations, climates, and cultures, which affected transportation costs, disease, and agricultural productivity.
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Alfred Crosby’s Columbian Exchange: Indian Depopulation and Food Sustainability
The Columbian Exchange was a two-way biological and agricultural exchange. The Europeans and Africans brought Old World airborne diseases to the New World for which the Indians did not have any immunity, which they exchanged for syphilis. The Europeans’ livestock provided much-needed labor and food source in the Americas. In return, the Americas supplied the Eastern Hemisphere with an abundance of agricultural products which would relieve hunger, increase nutrition, and enable a rapid growth spurt in the world’s population.
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Native American Population Estimates When Columbus Arrived In 1492
Pre-Columbian population estimates range from eight million to Henry Dobyns’s high count of 142 million, with the average estimate of Native American demographers over the past century remaining steady at about 40 million.[2] The high estimates can easily be discounted as exaggerations, considering that the Aztec Empire—one of the most densely populated regions in the Americas—had only about six million on the eve of European contact.
