From: "Robert MacIntosh" <macbuccfo at msn.com>
To: WSFAlist at WSFA.org
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Third Friday Minutes
Date: Sun, 24 Apr 2005 21:43:30 -0400
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

Excuse me? Urban legend? Sorry - wrong. The estimated population of North
America prior to the European invasion was nearly 200 million. By the time
of the American Revolution, almost 300 years later, North America native
population was less than 100 million. What do you think? They all get taken
by Aliens and ferried to other planets? They were certainly not killed by
the Europeans.

Case in point was the Carib Tribes on the big islands like Jamica, Cuba,
Hispanola, Puerto Rico...The best estimate of their numbers was about 300k
when the Spanish arrived in the period 1490 - 1510. By 1600, they had
effectively been wiped out. Spanish enslavement accounted for only about
100K of them. Battle accounted for another 50K. Care to guess that happened
to the other 150K?

Bob MacIntosh

>From: dicconf <dicconf at radix.net>
>Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
>To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
>Subject: [WSFA] Re: Third Friday Minutes
>Date: Sat, 23 Apr 2005 10:38:27 -0400 (EDT)
>
>On Fri, 22 Apr 2005, Mike B. wrote:
>
> > At 07:56 PM 4/22/05 -0400, Robert MacIntosh wrote:
> > >Right, but those take decades to work their effect. What the Europeans
> > >brought to the Americas halved or worse the local population in one
> > >generation. For the want of anything else, the scales of equality
>favored
> > >the Europeans.
> >
> > Showing just how important border control and a well thought out
> > immigration policy can be...
>
>This urban (I guess you would say) legend has been running around for
>about twenty years now -- that North America had some 50 million hunter-
>gatherers but they all died of European diseases and that's why there's no
>evidence that they were here.
>
>It's probably as phony as the Mormon "history" which has North America
>populated by _two_ high civilizations, each of which managed to commit
>genocide on itself before the next showed up, the last one leaving only
>the handful of surviving folks whom the Europeans found when _they_
>arrived.  Each of these civilizations, BTW, being founded by a single
>shipload of refugees from Palestine...
>
>-- Dick Eney
>