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to say it encompassed millions is an incredible stretch.

I find any number under 10 million very reasonable. This was a major civilizational center for most of what is now the eastern US. The population of the US according to the 1860 census was in the neighborhood of 60 million.

This was a major civilizational center for most of what is now the eastern US. The population of the US according to the 1860 census was in the neighborhood of 60 million.

Sure. And our agriculture and infrastructure was vastly more advanced then compared to what the Indians were doing. The term 'crop rotation' was unknown. They also tended to practice slash-and-burn agriculture and had no qualms about hunting game to local extinction. I highly doubt such a system could support more than a few hundred thousand at most.

At its height, the Iroquois Confederacy numbered about 30,000. If you lump in a few of the surrounding confederacies (the Hurons, Neutrals, Eries, Algonquins, Susquehannocks, Nanticokes, Delawares, and several smaller tribes) you find that no one of them numbered more than 40,000 and together they comprised perhaps 250,000 souls. And yet, they occupied an area roughtly that of modern New York, Quebec, Ontario, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware.