Aboriginal North American Population and Rates of Decline, ca. a.d. 1500‐19001

A preoccupation with disease to account for the decline in the Native American population has fostered a simplistic view of Native American population dynamics. A more appropriate focus is on how colonialism including its diseases interacted with Native American demographic regimes to produce long-term rates of population decline. Fertility reductions as well as increases in mortality seem to have been important in the decline. This paper was originally presented at the 1996 Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America. (EXCERPT)