Did most Native Americans die off from disease?

Question

I am skeptical. I think they died off due to a combination of factors: disease, genocide and their women intermarrying other races. They have done some genetic studies in some Latin American countries. In some countries such as Colombia, Costa Rica and Puerto Rico...most of the male genes derived from Europe while the maternal/female genes originated with local Native Americans. Certainly, a lot of Native American women did not die off from disease if they were able to reproduce mixed children with the European conquerors. When a certain culture or society is conquered and deprived of social status, the women often joins the victor (forced or not). We see this in our own society too. So many Asian/Oriental women exclusively dating/mating with white Anglo men is a good example. Since many Native Americans have feint racial and facial similarities with Asian people, I wouldn't be surprised if the dying out of Native Americans had much to do with their women selling out

Answer 1

Some historians estimate that the percentage of Native Americans killed by small pox was as high as 90%. Most agree that is was a HUGELY significant number, to where even 60% is a conservative estimate. And I should think that it wasn't so much an issue of women "selling out" as it was of European men raping them.

Besides, you should remember that the US is NOT Colombia, Costa Rica, or Puerto Rico. The Spaniards were less invasive than the English, and there are documented cases of the newly established US government giving blankets that they KNEW where infected with small pox to native peoples.

Small pox is a devastaing disease, and it was the most effective weapon Europe had in subduing the American continent, unwitting or not.

Answer 2

Interesting answers so far. Not all women "sold out" or were "raped". Those are the polar extremes. The early exploration parties from Europe consisted of men. The only women available were the natives of the "New World". Men and women tend to get together. These things happen both yesterday and today.
You are correct in assuming a multi-factorial explanation for the diminution in native populations, but infectious disease would have to be considered the paramount factor.
There is little doubt that diseases such as smallpox, measles, tuberculosis, influenza, and others encountering a naive, non-immune population can have devastating consequences.
Estimates lean toward the 90% mortality rate of the native peoples where there was contact with the Europeans. In my world history classes I call this "reverse decimation" since
the original term decimation in Roman times meant killing one man in ten or 10%.
The contaminated blanket thing is overstated. Undoubtedly this did occur in some cases, but it was not wholesale
premeditated biologic warfare. Simple contact with European traders, soldiers, or even well meaning missionaries was enough to spread contagious diseases. The spread of infection WAS largely unwitting. Europeans didn't understand microbiology then either. Infectious diseases were not understood until late in the 1800s,
and effective antibiotics only came along with world war two. Smallpox vaccination was available by the time of the American revolution in the 1770s, but that was far too late
for the native "Indians" who fell by the tens or hundreds of thousands in the 1500s.

Answer 3

Of course.

Think about it - most people still die of disease now.

In wealthy countries now it is cancer or heart disease not TB, cholera, plague or syphilis, which were the main killers 100 years ago.

Even as late as WWI, more US soldiers died of one disease - infuenza - than from enemy action - and that was AFTER pennecillin was discovered.

Answer 4

It was European colonization that brought in the disease. Before that, they were happy living with the spirits, the nature, and the wide-open spaces.