Silliman (2005) cited contributions from bioarchaeology and archaeology in modeling contact in North American following the arrival of Europeans in the late 15th century. The physical and social landscapes of Native Americans
were studied in relation to the impact of European contact and colonization on indigenous populations (Silliman 2005). The physical landscape associated with Native American contact with Europeans was defined by changes in environment, disease, demography, and diet (Silliman 2005). Native Americans in and of themselves were not wholly unfamiliar with human modifications to the natural environment, as many groups had domesticated wild plants and animals (Dobyns 1983; Silliman 2005). Heavy European exploration and settlement into North America after 1492 resulted in the introduction of European agricultural plants and livestock, intrusive wild plant and animal species, as well as European diseases. Demographic collapse and population loss following European epidemics occurred, having drastic effects on indigenous groups, along with the adoption of European trade goods and plant/animal products (Dobyns 1983; Silliman 2005; Warrick 2003). Additionally, European encroachment on indigenous territories caused population movements towards the interior of the northeast, especially into the Ohio Valley Region, following the arrival of Europeans (Brown et al. 2014).
4.3.1 Demographic Decline
The degree of the impact of European disease on indigenous population numbers has been highly debated by bioarchaeologists (Baker and Kealhofer 1996; Dobyns 1983; Hutchinson and Mitchem 2001; Ubelaker 1992). There are multiple methodological difficulties with determining the impact of European diseases. Many pathogens, such as measles and smallpox, carried by Europeans to the New World do not leave osteological markers thus rendering skeletal collections unreliable to document outbreaks of these diseases among native populations (Hutchinson and Mitchem 2001). These conditions generally tend to be acute rather than chronic infections, resulting in death before any skeletal involvement can occur (Hutchinson and Mitchem 2001). Mass mortality events such as mass burials
and cremations were not observed or were not distinguishable from pre-contact mortuary ritual, though demographic analysis of skeletal assemblages may shed light on the nature of mortality (attritional vs. catastrophic) (Gowland and Chamberlain 2004; Hutchinson and Mitchem 2001). While written accounts of disease outbreaks were recorded by missionaries in the 17th century, these accounts did not describe the symptoms of diseases or the death
tolls of these events, rendering this line of evidence unreliable at best (Baker 1994; Snow 1992). Thus, the best available estimates for population decline in North America were derived from demographic models (Hutchinson and Mitchem 2001).
Multiple models were suggested to illustrate the extent of demographic and population collapse following European contact among indigenous groups (Baker and Kealhofer 1996; Dobyns 1983; Ubelaker 1992). Dobyns (1983) suggested epidemic diseases resulted in extreme population decline. This “disease impact model” estimated that indigenous populations in North America prior to contact reached approximately 18 million, with a 90-95% loss of population after the rapid spread of European diseases throughout native groups (Dobyns 1983). Most scholars disagree with these figures as they overestimate the impact of population decline (Baker and Kealhofer 1996; Hutchinson and Mitchem 2001; Ubelaker 1992). Archaeological data regarding population size via settlement studies in the American Northeast showed that population decline following epidemic events did occur, but that populations can experience recovery within just a few generations and therefore the population impact of disease is not as severe as hypothesized by Dobyns in 1983 (Jones 2010). Ubelaker (1992) provided more conservative estimates of population collapse, estimating that the population of the American northeast at the beginning of the 17th century,
when contact with Europeans intensified in the region, was approximately 345,700 but had shrunk to approximately 149,360 by the 18th century, a 56.8% population loss (Ubelaker 1992: 175).
This figure is substantiated by reports of population collapse among the Huron-Petun following a series of historically documented 17th century epidemics resulting from measles, influenza and smallpox; from 1636-1640 the
Jesuits documented the population decreased from 30,000 individuals to 12,000 individuals, a 60% population decrease (Warrick 2003). Disease and depopulation was modeled by Jones (2010) and later by Jones and DeWitte (2012). The primary source of information regarding population estimates and percentage of population loss were derived from historical sources (Jones 2010). Jones and DeWitte (2012) utilized spatial mapping in conjunction with historical data to estimate differences in population decline between Iroquoian and Algonkian groups in northeast during the 17th century. They concluded that responses were varied; the Mohawk were significantly impacted, as
they did not retain any of their ancestral territory following multiple disease epidemics whereas the Seneca, Onondaga, and Oneida experienced some population re-growth (Jones and DeWitte 2012). It was hypothesized that several factors may have either contributed to or mitigated population collapse including: multiple disease events resulting in weakened immunity, genetic resistance, and adoption of outsiders by the Haudenosaunee (Jones and DeWitte 2012). Other evidence suggestive of demographic collapse came from Iroquoian ossuaries and New England cemetery sites, where in post-contact contexts the demographic profile fit that of epidemic disease due to a large percentage of adolescents in these collections (Baker 1994; Pfeiffer and Fairgrieve 1994; Warrick 2003). Higher
percentages of women were present in New England cemeteries after contact, though it is unlikely that males were less susceptible to disease and this disparity in sex distribution is likely due to male burials outside the group’s settlement due to various social factors such as warfare, subsistence activity and trade (Baker 1994).
4.3.2 Skeletal Analysis
While European disease epidemics might not be detectable osteologically, shifts in demographic patterns as well as other factors of population health were observable in skeletal collections from the contact period (Baker 1994; Pfeiffer and Fairgrieve 1994). Analyses of skeletal collections from pre-contact and post-contact groups have revealed information regarding the presence of specific pathogens following contact (Baker 1994; Pfeiffer and Fairgrieve 1994). In pre-contact Huron ossuaries, spinal tuberculosis lesions were observed, with an increase in cases in post-contact assemblages (Pfeiffer and Fairgrieve 1994). A high number of cases of tuberculosis were also noted by Baker (1994) for New England cemeteries; at the RI1000 Narragansett cemetery in Rhode Island, 30% of individuals (17 of 56) exhibited lesions of the spine, ribs, and hip joint associated with tuberculosis (Baker 1994). In the cemetery of Ponkapoag, associated with a missionary Praying Town in Massachusetts where English Puritans assimilated indigenous individuals to Christianity, tuberculosis lesions were not reported (Baker 1994). Only 5% of cases of tuberculosis manifest with skeletal lesions, and individuals with these lesions may have been healthier than those without them as this group survived long enough with the disease for extensive lesions to form (Santos and Roberts 2006; Wood et al. 1992).
Treponematoses were not observed for the Huron ossuaries by Pfeiffer and Fairgrieve (1994) but one possible case with cranial lesions was recorded by Baker (2005) at the Narragansett cemetery RI1000. Other post- contact cases of treponematoses were observed among Seneca sites, though none of the cases in the Northeast either prior to or post-contact have indicated congenital syphilis (Baker 2005).
Evidence of non-specific infection in the form of periostitis was noted by Pfeiffer and Fairgrieve (1994) for Huron ossuaries, with no increase in frequency from pre-contact sites; these conditions were not reported for New England cemeteries except in two isolated cases (Baker 1994). It was suggested that lesions were more advanced in late contact period ossuaries, suggesting that contact may have had an impact on general population health (Pfeiffer and Fairgrieve 1994). Other stress lesions such as cribra orbitalia and enamel hypoplasia were observed among the Iroquoian samples. The pattern remains unclear as to the extent that contact played upon physiological stress in these populations as cribra orbitalia was reported in higher frequencies at pre-contact sites and rates of enamel hypoplasias increased after contact (Pfeiffer and Fairgrieve 1994).
Dental disease frequencies also increased among contact era Iroquoians, though whether or not this trend was exacerbated by contact was debated (Pfeiffer and Fairgrieve 1994:56). For example, the rates of dental caries in pre-contact ossuaries such as Fairty and Glen Williams were 28% and 22.4% respectively, but at the post-contact ossuary at Kleinberg the rate increased to 40.6% of teeth affected (Pfeiffer and Fairgrieve 1994:56). Among the New
England indigenous groups of the post-contact period, there was a high rate of caries (77.4% of individuals, 32.9% of teeth affected) noted for one cemetery, RI1000, associated with the Narragansetts and this was attributed to the increased consumption of flour and sugar introduced by Europeans into the indigenous diet after the establishment of colonies in the region (Baker 1994:42). This pattern is not evident for all New England collections, where dental disease rates were low especially in the Praying Towns associated with native assimilation to Christianity, such as at Ponkapoag where the individual caries rate was 11.1% (Baker 1994). This trend was explained by the possibility that native groups still preserved their own native subsistence practices after settlement in Praying Towns and that the impact of acculturation on some groups did not have deleterious effects on health (Baker 1994).
Evidence of interpersonal violence was present in pre-contact Huron ossuaries, but higher frequencies of traumatic lesions associated with violence were recorded for post-contact sites, such as at the Uxbridge ossuary where 6 cranial wounds, 22 infracranial fractures, and 21 vertebral compression fractures were identified in a sample of 457 individuals (Pfeiffer and Fairgrieve 1994:54). Some of these lesions, though it was not stated which specifically, were associated with interpersonal violence indicating that conflict increased among Iroquoians following the arrival of Europeans (Pfeiffer and Fairgrieve 1994:54). Baker (1994) noted that only two cases of vertebral trauma are suggestive of violence in New England contact assemblages, whereas other isolated cases of trauma are indicative of falls or accidents.