The book 1491 also had this kind of hypothesis. Now we are finding it likely was true. More to come I’m sure. And we never can really know what was lost.The histories, the natural cures for diseases that they knew of, and so much more. The European invasion was perhaps the most destructive thing ever done to the planet. The great rush to explore the planet to exploit it’s natural resources is now in it’s end game, unless something very radical changes to save it.
Vancouver has the highest population density among Canadian municipalities, according to the 2016 census, and New Westminster, the City of North Vancouver, Victoria and White Rock all make the top 10. It was like that, too, before the first Europeans arrived in the 1700s, according to a study published in the Journal of Northwest Anthropology that was co-written by Richard M. Hutchings of the Institute for Critical Heritage and Tourism. The Salish Sea Basin was one of the “most densely populated” pre-contact geographical areas, Hutchings said from his home on Gabriola Island, which is home to 98 of the pre-contact sites the study counted. Immediately after contact, indigenous populations began crashing, he said. The arrival of diseases such as measles and smallpox carried by Europeans was primarily responsible. Gordon McIntyre reports. (The Province)
Salish Sea basin was one of continent’s most densely populated areas when Europeans arrived
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