Historical demography of Native Americans

Tribes affected: Pantribal

Significance: After European contact, most Native American nations experienced dramatic population losses, but today they represent one of the fastest-growing segments of American society

When Europeans arrived on the shores of North America, they encountered an estimated 1.2 to 18 million people. They were the “original Americans,” descendants of people who journeyed to North America thousands of years before Europeans. Over the millennia, Native Americans evolved hundreds of unique cultural traditions with their own worldviews, perhaps two hundred languages (of several distinct families), ecological adaptations to every environmental situation, and a range of forms of governance. Native North America, prior to the arrival of Europeans, represented one of the most ethnically diverse regions in the world. Tragically, much of this cultural mosaic was extinguished by massive population declines after European contact. Yet Native Americans survived this demographic and cultural onslaught to represent one of the fastest-growing segments of American society today.

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The colonization of the Americas by Paleo-Indians (an anthropological term for the ancestors of Native Americans) was one of the greatest demographic events in global history. There has been considerable controversy regarding the dates for early migrations to North America. Some scholars have suggested that the earliest migrations occurred as far back as fifty thousand years ago; some have said that migration may also have occurred as recently as three thousand years ago. A more generally agreed-upon time frame for the migrations, however, is between twenty-five thousand and twelve thousand years ago.

Although many Native Americans reject the hypothesis that their ancestors immigrated from greater Eurasia, archaeological evidence suggests that some first Americans may have entered the Western Hemisphere during the many glacial periods that exposed Beringia, the Bering Strait land bridge. Beringia periodically linked Siberia with the Americas, allowing animals and humans access to both continents. Others may have made the journey using boats, following a maritime route or traveling down a coastal corridor. In any event, these irregular waves of colonizers represented the last great global movement of people into unoccupied land—a migration hallmark in human history.

How many “first Americans” entered the Americas is unknown. Archaeologists note that the Late Wisconsin glacier’s recession about fifteen thousand years ago allowed Native American people to migrate southward, eventually colonizing the remainder of the Americas. Prior to that time, the glacier largely prevented further immigration and colonization. What specific routes they took and how rapidly people dispersed across both continents are topics of considerable archaeological debate. There is firm evidence that by 9400 b.c.e. Native Americans had reached southern South America, indicating that Native Americans had dispersed widely across the “New World’s” landscape. Despite hypotheses that argue for an accelerated population growth rate, it is likely that during this early colonization period, the Native American population’s growth rates were slow to moderate, with cyclical rates of growth and decline. These population fluctuations reflected a complex array of changing social, demographic, and ecological conditions as local populations adapted to regional conditions.

In North America, Native American demographic distribution and redistribution paralleled closely the glacial retreat north, the trend toward regional and climatic aridity that altered local resources, and cultural innovations. The above factors, by 9000 b.c.e., eventually made possible the colonization of every available area on the North American continent. These hunter-gatherers and, later, the cultural traditions known as Archaic societies, developed a greater variety of lifeways, producing marked differences in population size, distribution, and vital events.

Paleopathological evidence indicates that prehistoric Native American populations faced a number of health risks. Documented cases of malnutrition, anemia, tuberculosis, trachoma, trepanematoid infections, and degenerative conditions occurred in pre-Columbian North America. These afflictions, coupled with periodic trauma, accidents, and warfare, affected the demographic structure of regional populations.

A cultural innovation that had significant demographic consequences was the invention and diffusion of agriculture. Sometime before 3500 b.c.e. in Mesoamerica, maize, beans, and squash were domesticated. As this cultural knowledge spread northward, many Native American societies east of the Mississippi River, in the Southwest, and along the major waterways of the greater Midwest adopted agriculture. Demographically, agriculture promoted the development of larger populations, residing in sedentary villages or cities. Near present-day Alton, Illinois, along the Mississippi River, for example, was the urban center of Cahokia. At its height about 1100 c.e., Cahokia extended over 5 square miles and had a population of perhaps thirty thousand people. Although regional population concentrations arose across native North America, by 1300 c.e. many areas containing high population densities began to decline. The causes of the decline and social reorganization in some regions are open to debate. It is clear that in a number of regions, high population densities and size remained until the European encounter.

By the time of European contact, native North America demographically contained a variety of population sizes and densities, ranging from fewer than one person per 10 square miles in the Great Basin culture area to the densely settled, resource-rich regions of the Pacific Northwest, Northeast, Southeast, and Southwest. These areas may have supported from five to more than one hundred people per 10 square miles. By the time Europeans arrived, Native Americans already had undergone a number of profound demographic events.

The European colonization of North America launched a series of catastrophic events for Native American populations. Native American societies experienced tremendous population declines. Native American populations periodically experienced mortality increases, decreases in their fertility performance, forced migration, as well as a deterioration of their societal health status.

Of all the factors that affected post-contact Native American societies, the accelerated death rates from the introduction of European diseases remain prominent. Europeans brought smallpox, measles, cholera, and other infections that were foreign to Native American people. It has been estimated that ninety-three epidemics of Old World pathogens affected Native Americans from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries. Post-contact diseases, combined with warfare, genocide, and the introduction of alcohol, forced migration and relocation, and the overall destruction of indigenous lifeways resulted in the demographic collapse of native North America. One Native American scholar called it the “American Indian Holocaust.”

Within decades of European contact, Native American populations declined. The colonization of the Spanish, French, and, later, English set in motion significant population changes. Between 1500 and 1820, Native American populations residing east of the Mississippi River declined to approximately 6 percent of their at-contact size. In the southeastern region, for example, the estimated Native American population in 1685 was 199,400. By 1790 their population was approximately 55,900—a decline of 71.9 percent. Paralleling this demographic collapse, the ethnic diversity of indigenous societies residing east of the Mississippi River declined between 25 and 79 percent, as distinct Native American nations were driven to extinction or forced to amalgamate with other Native American nations.

In 1830, the remaining Native Americans in the East were forcibly removed to west of the Mississippi River under the administration of President Andrew Jackson. Between 1828 and 1838, approximately 81,300 Native Americans were thus removed. For their relocation efforts, the U.S. government acquired 115,355,767 acres of Indian lands and resources. Furthermore, the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Seminole, and Muskogee lost between 15 and 50 percent of their population during the forced relocation. Other removed Native American tribal nations suffered similar demographic losses. By about 1850, the estimated Native American population stood at 383,000.

As Native American populations declined, the European, African American, and Latino populations grew, occupying the available lands acquired from Native Americans. Aside from losing their land and resources, the increasing contact with non-Indians had other important demographic consequences. Since contact, Native Americans have experienced an increased genetic exchange with European and African populations. The rise of people with Native American-European or Native American-African ancestry, or of all three ancestries, may have had significant implications for tribal survival and demographic recovery. Some scholars suggest that depopulation and the following demographic recovery resulted in certain physical and genetic changes in those who survived the epidemic. The incorporation of Europeans, African Americans, or other Native Americans promoted further those phenotypic and genotypic processes.

As the American population of European descent surpassed twenty-three million by 1850, Native Americans west of the Mississippi River began to experience directly the brunt of colonization and settlement. Prior to that time, western Native American populations had experienced introduced infectious diseases, intermittent warfare with Europeans, and an erosion of their resources. The Mandan, for example, boasted an estimated at-contact population of possibly 15,000. After the 1837-1838 smallpox epidemic, their population collapsed to between 125 and 1,200 individuals, forcing them eventually to merge, culturally and biologically, with the Arikara and Hidatsa. Western indigenous nations, from 1850 through 1880, witnessed continued demographic upheaval. Their population changes during those decades were affected by the dramatic social and economic changes in U.S. society. The United States economy was industrializing, American society was becoming more urban, and the federal government desired a link between the east and west coasts as a completion to its nation-building. In addition, the United States experienced a dramatic influx of European immigrants. In three decades, from 1850 to 1880, the European population increased to 50,155,783. This prompted the federal government to alienate Native Americans from their remaining lands. To meet these economic and political demands, western lands and resources were needed. The continued demographic collapse of many Indian nations occurred under the guise of the nation’s rhetoric of Manifest Destiny.

In an attempt to subdue the remaining indigenous populations and force them onto reservations, the U.S. government either negotiated a series of treaties or carried out military expeditions. The combined impact of war, disease, and the continued destruction of their lifeways resulted in further population decline. By the time Native Americans were relegated to reservations or rural communities in 1880, there were 306,543 Native Americans surviving in the coterminous United States.

The indigenous population of the United States reached its nadir in 1890. The 1890 U.S. Census recorded 248,253 Native Americans in the continental United States. Although most infectious diseases experienced during the pre-reservation era began to diminish, these acute infections were replaced with chronic diseases on reservations. Poor sanitation, poor nutrition, overcrowding, and severe cultural oppression resulted in the appearance of tuberculosis, trachoma, and intermittent measles and influenza outbreaks, as well as a rise in infant mortality. As these afflictions reached epidemic proportions, the Native American population between 1900 and 1920 remained rather static. Most Native Americans continued to live on reservations or rural areas, isolated from society. In 1920, only 6.2 percent of Native Americans resided in urban areas.

After 1930, however, Native Americans began to experience a tremendous growth rate. With the passage of the Indian Reorganization Act (1934), cultural oppression lessened, health and sanitation conditions improved, and social programs began to affect Native American demography positively. Native American populations grew because fertility increased, infant survivorship improved, and the death rate fell. The result was a young age-sex structure.

The advent of World War II witnessed a migratory shift away from reservations and rural communities. Attracted by service in the armed forces and urban job prospects, many Native Americans migrated to major cities. The outflow of Native American immigrants to urban centers initiated a demographic trend that continues to the present. The outmigration of Native Americans was stimulated further by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. In the mid-1950’s, the federal government instituted a Native American relocation program. The program assisted Native Americans through job training and support services in being placed in an urban center. In 1990, for the first time since indigenous people have been recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau, the census recorded that more Native Americans resided in urban than in rural areas. The Greater Los Angeles metropolitan area, for example, had 87,500 people of Native American descent, an increase of 5 percent over the previous decade.

Since the 1950’s, the Native American population has grown tremendously. In 1960, there were 551,636 Native Americans. By 1970, there were 827,273 people who identified themselves as Native American. The 1980 U.S. Census witnessed a 71.1 percent increase. The reasons for this growth are complex and multifactorial. First, after the transfer of the Indian Health Service from the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1955, Native American health improved dramatically, especially infant and child health care. Second, Native American fertility increased and mortality decreased, adding significantly to the population. Finally, more Americans are identifying themselves as having Native American ancestry.

The Native American population of the United States is young and growing. As a result, the Native American population suffers from social problems in which demography plays an important role. Native American health status lags behind that of the United States’ general population. Deaths by accidents, violence, suicide, tuberculosis, diabetes, and numerous other conditions exceed national averages. Native American unemployment, in both rural and urban areas, remains high, although the number of Native American-owned businesses increased by 64 percent between 1982 and 1987. Poverty also continues to plague Native American families. In the ten states with the most Native Americans, between 17 and 47 percent of Native American persons live in poverty. Finally, Native American people continue to report various risk factors associated with the above conditions. According to 1988 statistics, 31.1 percent of eighth-grade Native American children resided in single-parent households, 40.1 percent resided in households that earned less than $15,000 annually, and 18.6 percent spent more than three hours home alone every day. These factors conspire to promote continued poverty, low educational attainment, high unemployment, and ill health.

The 1990 census counted 1,878,000 Native Americans, an increase of more than 25 percent since 1980. Native American people reside in every state in the union, but the majority of the population is concentrated in the west. Also, a major portion of the population is concentrated in ten tribes.

The phenomenal growth rate among Native Americans exceeds the growth for African Americans and Americans of European descent but not the increase in the Latino or Asian populations. Today, Native Americans and Alaska Natives compose approximately 1 percent of the United States population but continue to represent a higher percentage of the country’s cultural diversity.

Native Americans have undergone a number of significant population changes. Initially, their ancestors colonized a continent. Over time, these small groups of hunter-gatherers flourished, their population increased, and some societies constructed large, urban centers. After European contact, as the table “Native American Population, 1890-1990 indicates, the Native American population suffered a devastating demographic collapse that lasted for almost four hundred years. In spite of the demographic and cultural disruptions, economic and social problems, as well as continued ill health, the twentieth century Native American population made a remarkable recovery. All demographic indicators point to continued population growth into the future.

Bibliography

Hodgkinson, Harold L. The Demographics of American Indians: One Percent of the People, Fifty Percent of the Diversity. Washington, D.C.: Center for Demographic Policy, Institute for Educational Leadership, 1990. A concise discussion of sociodemographics among North American Indians.

Reddy, Marlita A., ed. Statistical Record of Native North Americans. Detroit: Gale Research, 1993. A useful guide to Native American statistics.

Snipp, C. Matthew. American Indians: The First of This Land. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1989. A comprehensive analysis of Native American contemporary demography.

Stannard, David E. American Holocaust. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. A discussion of Native American population decline in relation to European conquest and colonization.

Stuart, Paul. Nations Within a Nation: Historical Statistics of American Indians. New York: Greenwood Press, 1987. A work of compiled historical statistics about Native Americans.

Thornton, Russell. American Indian Holocaust and Survival: A Population History Since 1492. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1987. Provides an overview of Native American population and recovery from European contact to 1980.

Verano, John W., and Douglas H. Ubelaker, eds. Disease and Demography in the Americas. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992. A collection of articles assessing the health and demography of pre-contact and post-contact Native American populations.