Numbers from nowhere

the long version

In the past forty years an entirely new paradigm has developed regarding the contact population of the New World. Proponents of this new theory argue that the American Indian population in 1492 was ten, even twenty, times greater than previous estimates. In Numbers from Nowhere David Henige argues that the data on which these high counts are based are meager and often demonstrably wrong. Interpreting the archaeological as well as the historical evidence, Henige concludes that the task of assigning meaningful numbers for the American Indian contact population is an impossible one.