Introduction

The Native American's of North America lived on the land for centuries before the Europeans discovered there was good land for the taking. When the settlers of the New World arrived, they brought many disease with them, including smallpox, bubonic plague and cholera. These disease claimed many European lives, but they eventually built up an immunity to them. Because the Native Americans did not have the protection of immunity, they quickly succumbed to the new viruses.

It is hard to get an accurate population count for Native Americans before the arrival of Europeans to the Americas. The estimates range from as low as 10 million to as high as 100 million. Many scholars have agreed that about 50 million Native Americans lived off the land before the infestation of European settlers. It is now believed that disease it the main reason for the massive decline in Native American population. Because disease spread throughout the Native American population so fast, by the time the Europeans got to the West, disease had already wiped out a huge portion of Native Americans. This is also one of the reasons the written records of the Native population cannot be considered accurate – the Europeans never saw the Native Americans at their greatest. It is believe that the spread of European disease throughout the Americas is responsible for killing millions, possibly as high as 80 to 90 percent of the population.

Through this WIKI, we will explore different diseases and the different way the Native Americans may have come into contact with them - the distribution of blankets infected with disease and reservations and missions where the Native Americans were at the mercy of the Europeans. We will also explore genocide and mass killings of the Native Americans through history.


 * Before Invasion of Europeans**
 * [[image:nadiseases/before_1.jpg width="309" height="204"]] || [[image:nadiseases/before2.jpg width="296" height="197" align="left"]] || [[image:nadiseases/before3.jpg width="263" height="202" align="left"]] ||


 * After Invasion of Europeans**
 * [[image:nadiseases/after3.jpg width="312" height="213"]] || [[image:nadiseases/after2.jpg width="312" height="217" align="left"]] || [[image:nadiseases/after_1.jpg width="296" height="219" align="right"]] ||

Citations:

Oswalt, Wendell H. //This Land Was Theirs, A Study Of Native North Americans //. 9th ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, USA, 2008. Print.

Taylor, Anne. “American Colonies”. [|http://books.google.com/books?id=NPoAQRgkrOcC&pg=PA40&dq=pre-Columbian+population+million&cd=6#v=onepage&q=pre-Columbian%20population%20million&f=false]

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