[ThanhPhero]

No. Not prior to first contact. The first explorers and conquistadores ALL reported large populations and village after village. A generation later the reports were of villages with remains of the dead all about and empty land. In all the Americas it was the same.

1491 - Charles C. Mann

The apparent hantavirus dieoff occurred a bit later than the first years and equally devastating though limited probably to Mexico and is theorized but quite possible.

[TheThirdRuffian]

“The apparent hantavirus dieoff occurred a bit later than the first years and equally devastating though limited probably to Mexico and is theorized but quite possible.”

Tell that to Squanto (the Indian with the Pilgrims) whose entire tribe died off years before the Pilgrims showed up -— pretty far from Mexico.

There are Conquestador reports of entire towns with dead people in them -— just lying about, unburied.

[TheThirdRuffian]

“No. Not prior to first contact. The first explorers and conquistadores ALL reported large populations and village after village.”

That’s actually not quite true. Early first contact explorers ALSO saw towns full of freshly dead people (see link in prior post).

It’s almost like Europeans showed up in the cusp of the plague. Sure, smallpox may have pushed things over, but SOMETHING was up.