Breakout Session 1: Colonists and Native

Americans

Land and beaver for war and disease:

A fair trade?

Jenny WahlCarleton College Economics

Department

2

The Beaver “Game” (5 person group) part 1

Current beaver population: 10,000Annual rate of population increase if no predators:

10%

Possible per-family annual beaver consumption:15: scrape by20: adequate clothing, food, and medicine25: luxurious clothing, extra food and medicineany amount over 25 would rot

Each tribal representative in group speaks for 10 families

3

The Beaver “Game” (2 person group)part 1

Current beaver population: 10,000Annual rate of population increase if no predators:

10%

Possible per-family annual beaver consumption:15: scrape by20: adequate clothing, food, and medicine25: luxurious clothing, extra food and medicineany amount over 25 would rot

Each tribal representative in group speaks for 25 families

4

The Beaver “Game” (5 person group)part 2

Current beaver population: 10,000Annual rate of population increase if no predators:

10%

Possible per-family annual beaver consumption:15: scrape by20: adequate clothing, food, and medicine25: luxurious clothing, extra food and medicineany amount over 25 would rot

Each tribal representative in group speaks for 10 families

White man will buy up to 50 pelts from each tribe for 5 shillings/pelt

5

The Beaver “Game” (2 person group)part 2

Current beaver population: 10,000Annual rate of population increase if no predators:

10%

Possible per-family annual beaver consumption:15: scrape by20: adequate clothing, food, and medicine25: luxurious clothing, extra food and medicineany amount over 25 would rot

Each tribal representative in group speaks for 25 families

White man will buy up to 125 pelts from each tribe for 5 shillings/pelt

6

1050 1100 1125 1150 1200 1250 (1/5 cheat) (2/5 cheat) (1/2 cheat) (3/5 cheat) (4/5 cheat) (all cheat)

10000 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000

9950 9900 9875 9850 9800 9750 9895 9790 9738 9685 9580 9475 9835 9669 9586 9504 9338 9173 9768 9536 9420 9304 9072 8840 9695 9389 9237 9084 8779 8474 9614 9228 9036 8843 8457 8071 9526 9051 8814 8577 8103 7628 9428 8856 8571 8285 7713 7141 9321 8642 8303 7963 7284 6605 9203 8406 8008 7609 6813 6016 9073 8147 7684 7220 6294 5367 8931 7862 7327 6792 5723 4654 8774 7548 6935 6322 5095 3869 8601 7203 6503 5804 4405 3006 8411 6823 6028 5234 3646 2057 8203 6405 5506 4608 2810 1013 7973 5946 4932 3918 1891 -136 7720 5440 4300 3160 880 17 periods 7442 4884 3605 2326 -232 7136 4273 2841 1409 19 periods 6800 3600 2000 400 6430 2860 1075 -710 6023 2046 57 22 periods 5575 1150 -1062 5083 165 24 periods 4541 -918 3945 26 periods 3290 2568 1775 903 -57

32 periods

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Fur Prices and Estimated Beaver Prices (Ft. Albany):

1700-1763

55

65

75

85

95

105

115

125

1700

1703

1706

1709

1712

1715

1718

1721

1724

1727

1730

1733

1736

1739

1742

1745

1748

1751

1754

1757

1760

1763

year

pri

ce in

dex

, rel

ativ

e q

uan

tity

price

population

sustainable population

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The Importance of King Philip’s War

• Strength in numbers is critical -- subsequent rise in colonial birth rates

• A common enemy forges a common (non-British) identity

• Decimation of indigenous people helps clear the path for Western expansion

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Subsequent Wars Involving Native Americans

• King William’s War (1689-97), War of the Grand Alliance. Treaty of Ryswick (1697).

• Queen Anne’s War (1702-13), War of the Spanish Succession. Treaty of Utrecht (1713).

• King George’s War (1744-48), War of Jenkins’ Ear/Austrian Succession. Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748).

• French and Indian War (1754-63), Seven Years’ War. Treaty of Paris (1763).

• American Revolution (1775-83). Treaty of Paris (1783/4).

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Infectious Disease Epidemics Other Than Smallpox, 1531-1778

Period Epidemic People affected

1531-1533 Measles New Spain, probably beyond the colony, northward including Pueblos and beyond

1545-1548 Bubonic Plague New Spain to Pueblos and perhaps beyond

1559 Influenza Southeastern peoples

1576 Bubonic Plague New Spain

1586 Typhus Tidewater Carolina tribes ; extending to southern New England tribes

1592-1593 Measles Sinaloa

1601-1602 Diphtheria Central New Spain to Sinaloa

1602 Measles Sinaloa

1611 Typhus Sinaloa

1612-1619 Bubonic Plague New Spain to Florida and New England

1633-1634 Measles New England, New France, and Great Lakes groups;

1647 Influenza New England tribes

1658-1659 Measles Canadian tribes; Florida peoples to Mexico City-with diphtheria

1659 Diphtheria New England and Canadian tribes

1675 Influenza Iroquois and New England tribes

1692-1693 Measles Illinois peoples; Oneidas

1696-1698 Influenza Possible component with smallpox epidemic among Gulf Coast and southeastern peoples

1713-1715 Measles New England tribes to Illinois

1720 Typhus "Marseilles Fever"among Naskapi

1727-1728 Measles Mexico City to California tribes; Florida peoples; possibly New England groups

1742 Typhus Lower California tribes; possibly Choctaw

1746 Influenza Possible component with smallpox epidemic among northeastern tribes

1759-1760 Measles Possibly southeastern peoples

1761 Influenza All Native Americans in North America

1767 Bubonic Plague Louisiana peoples

1776-1778 Measles Possibly in Plains, Hudson Bay, and Texas tribes

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Smallpox Epidemics, 1520-1783Period People or place affected

1520-1524 From Chile across present-day United States

1592-1593 Central Mexico to Sinaloa; southern New England; eastern Great Lakes

1602 Sinaloa and northward

1639 French and British northeastern North America

1646-1648 New Spain to Nuevo Leon tribes and western Sierra Madre to Florida

1649-1650 Northeastern tribes; Montagnais-Neskapi to Quebec, Huron, and Iroquois; Florida

1655 Florida chiefdoms

1662-1663 Iroquois, Delaware; Canadian tribes; Central Mexico

1665-1667 Florida chiefdoms to Virginia tribes

1669-1670 French and British northeastern North America

1674-1675 Coahuiltecan tribes of Texas; northeastern New Spain

1677-1679 French and British northeastern North America

1687-1691 Northeastern tribes on British and French frontiers; Texas tribes

1696-1699 Southeastern and Gulf Coast chiefdoms

1701-1703 Northeastern tribes to Illinois

1706 Coahuiltecan tribes of Texas and northeastern New Spain

1755-1760 From Canada, New England, and Great Lakes to Virginia, Carolinas, and Texas

1762-1766 From Central Mexico through Texas and the Southeast to Northwest Coast

1779-1783 From Central Mexico across all of North America

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Various Population EstimatesIndigenous tribes (very rough)

• Atlantic/Gulf region (1600-50): 220,000 – 2 million?• Plains region (1600s): 100,000?

• East of Mississippi (1750) – 200,000?

• Plains/Rockies/California/Alaska (mid-1800s): 500,000?

• Atlantic/Gulf (1907): 86,770• Plains/Rockies/California/Alaska (1907): 181,000

Whites• 1610: 350• 1650: 49,000• 1780: 2,210,000

Total• 1790: 3,929,000• 1850: 23,261,000• 1907: 87,008,000

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Interlocking Causes of Native Population Decline

War Disease

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