Ethnic Cleansing of Native Americans in North America

AD – MPE: 0.13

ND – MPE: 0.02

On his website “Necrometrics” White cites an estimate which claims that 0.04 to 0.05 million Native Americans were directly killed during the ethnic cleansing by government forces and settlers. About 0.02 million whites were killed. Around 0.35 million Native Americans perished during the conquest of their lands. Most of them were killed by infectious diseases. It isn’t clear how many died by coming into contact with Europeans and how many died as a direct result of the loss of hunting grounds, forced resettlement and impoverishment. The historians Catherine M. Cameron, Paul Kelton and Atlan C. Swedlund have convincingly shown in their book “Beyond Germs – Native Depopulation in North America” that colonialism, ehtnic cleansing, slavery and genocidal warfare have made Native Americans mores susceptible to small pox and other diseases. It is impossible to say how many were killed by disease as a result of direct violence and discrimination. But government forces and settlers were clearly responsible for some of the deaths by disease.

Plausible estimates for the number of people killed by democratic pioneers range from 0.06 to 0.25 million. I choose 0.13 as the most plausible estimate. Plausible estimates for the number of people killed by nondemocratic forces range from 0.02 to 0.03 million. I choose 0.02 as the most plausible estimate.