Why Did Monongahela Indians Disappear From Western Pennsylvania?

Northern Light ^ | 10-2-2002

[Notforprophet]

Cool article, but I'm certain the data will be used by the Greens for dire purposes.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Al Gore addressed this in "Earth in the Balance". It was global warming from the steel mills that drove them out.

[facedown]

Gosh, you mean there were factors that influenced Amerind populations besides the evil Europeans? </SARCASM>

Interesting article!

[r9etb]

I'm more prone to accept the disease theory. IIRC, it's pretty well documented that the Eastern coastal Indians died off in droves at around the time of the Pilgrims (1620). (Weren't you part of that thread a couple of weeks back?)

We know there was contact between tribes -- easy to see them being taken out by a plague, especially since we know such things happened. It's far harder to imagine a drought doing it to them, especially in a valley where the rivers did not run dry.

[RightWhale]

Wow! Pittsburgh was uninhabited altogether? Makes one wonder why the French and the Brits were fighting out there.

[Thud]

Contagious disease is more lethal in populations under stress from other factors, notably starvation.

[justshe]

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[tracer]

They suddenly realized how close they were to NJ and NY...

[Ditto]

It's far harder to imagine a drought doing it to them, especially in a valley where the rivers did not run dry.

I agree. It wasn't like there were millions of Indians there --- maybe 10,000 at best, and it's doubtful they would be farming or even settle far from the rivers. The 'bottom land' was the only easily tillible soil in that region. Every thing else was far to rocky or clay filled for an age without horses and steel plows. Even in the times when the rivers would get very low in the summer, (before damns and reservoirs) I can't imagine the rivers that drain nearly all the land west of the Appalachians from New York state to North Carolina ever running totally dry.

[VOA]

Cool article, but I'm certain the data will be used by the Greens for dire purposes.

Yep. They surely won't come to their senses and follow that splinter of The Sierra Club
that was agitating to support at least a decrease in the annual migration into the USA.

Funny, only Osama's actions can cause some sanity to occur at the borders...but not enough.

[Chad Fairbanks]

It was my Iroquian ancestors that drove them out - they were in the way ;0)

[another cricket]

I can't imagine the rivers that drain nearly all the land west of the Appalachians from New York state to North Carolina ever running totally dry.

The question is did they irrigate using the river? If they didn't it wouldn't matter if it were flowing or not.

a.cricket

[lawdude]

Their leaders kept changing election rules, just before the big pow-wow.

[Redcloak]

Why Did Monongahela Indians Disappear From Western Pennsylvania?

Didn't they all go back to Wales?

</silly_comments>

[VOA]

Perhaps of collateral interest was a column that Patrick Michaels of The Cato Institute
did about the drought of 1930, as well as older historical droughts.

It's over at this URL:
http://www.cato.org/research/articles/michaels-020901.html

[blam]

"I'm more prone to accept the disease theory. IIRC, it's pretty well documented that the Eastern coastal Indians died off in droves at around the time of the Pilgrims (1620). (Weren't you part of that thread a couple of weeks back?)"

Yes. The tree rings don't tell lies. Probably a combination of things.

[rabidralph]

Unpaid gambling debts.

[Consort]

Red Flight?

[blam]

"I agree. It wasn't like there were millions of Indians there --- maybe 10,000 at best."

I have been persuaded recently that when the modern Europeans discovered South America, that there were more people there than all of Europe. N/A, don't know?