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continent-wide in the
Americas. Rather, epidemics were localized, highly fatal in impacted peoples, but not spreading beyond a limited area. By the 1990s, estimates of pre-Columbian North American Indian population often ranged from 3.4 to 7.0 million people. Although the magnitude of the decline in North American Indian populations can be debated, Dobyns was correct in asserting that the arrival of European settlers and diseases in the Americas led to a catastrophic reduction of the Indian population. From whatever it was in 1500, the Indian population of the United States declined to a total of only 536,000 by 1900.
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Caribbean, Mexico, and Peru shortly after those places were visited or colonized by
Europeans. He believed that the 16th century epidemics had impacted all the population of the Americas and that only a remnant of the pre-Columbian population survived into the 17th century. Dobyns' high estimates of North American Indian populations also called into doubt the "national myth" that the United States and Canada were a mostly-empty wilderness ripe for exploitation when European settlers arrived in the early 17th century.
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population of the United States and Canada at about one million people. Dobyn's postulated instead a population of 9.8 to 12.2 million, an assertion that aroused controversy among anthropologists. (Dobyns postulated a hemisphere-wide population of
American Indians between 90 and 113 million, a number
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He joined the
Cornell Peru Project in 1960 after earning his Ph.D. There he worked as a research coordinator from 1960 to 1962, and as a Peace Corps coordinator from 1962 to 1964, and coordinator of the Comparative Studies of Cultural Change program. He was also the Coordinator of the Andean Indian
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indigenous (Indian) population of the
Americas, especially North America, than previous scholars. Dobyns believed that the Indian population of the United States and Canada was 9.8 to 12.2 million people in 1500 and was reduced by 90 percent in the 16th century by continent-wide epidemics of disease
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Decades of study and controversy ensued after Dobyns' assertions. He has been partially refuted by many anthropologists. They accepted that pre-Dobyns estimates of
American Indian populations were too low, but found little evidence to sustain Dobyns' opinion that 16th century epidemics were
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Dobyn's assertion was that continent-wide epidemics of diseases introduced in the
Americas by European explorers and settlers in the 16th century reduced the Indian population by 90 to 95 percent. Dobyns based that view on evidence of 16th century epidemics impacting Indian societies in the
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Tribal Nation’s land claims case and acted as an expert witness before the U.S. Supreme Court with much of the information in his M.A. thesis being used in the Indian Claims
Commission hearings. He also spent three decades working as a consultant for the Gila River Indian Community in their
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In 1948 Dobyns married
Zipporah Pottenger with whom he had four children; Rique, Bill, Maritha and Mark. He married his second wife, anthropologist Dr. Cara Richards in 1958 and had one child, York Dobyns. In 1968 he married his third wife, Mary Faith Patterson.
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Community
Research and Development project from 1963 to 1966, and the Associate Director of the Cornell Peru Project. Dobyns was made Director of the project in 1966 after the death of the former director, Allan R. Holmberg.
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substantially larger than the population of all of Europe in 1500.) In 1983, Dobyns upped his estimate of pre-Columbian American Indian population in North America to 18 million.
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of native peoples in the American hemisphere. He is best known for his groundbreaking demographic research on the size of indigenous American populations before the arrival of
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in 1952. He continued this work over the next 50 years with various tribes. From 1952 to 1956, he gathered ethnohistorical and archaeological evidence for the
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Dobyns also worked as a senior researcher at the Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology at the University of Arizona and on projects for the
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From 1971 to 1976 Dobyns edited the Indian Tribal Series, a 40 volume series of tribal history and culture of which Dobyns wrote six volumes.
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263:, Center of Man and Environment as a professor and later as the Vice-president for Academic Affairs. Between 1977 and 1979 he taught at the
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introduced by European explorers and settlers. His views were controversial but have been partially accepted by most anthropologists.
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from 1974 to 1977 and also 1983 through 1984. In 1983 he directed seminars on Native American Historical Demography, funded by the
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Dobyns worked with Native American tribes on land claims and a water rights case while he was a graduate student at the
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From 1949 to 1952 he was an instructor at Cornell University’s Field Laboratory in Applied Anthropology in Arizona and
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Renowned Anthropologist, a UA Alumnus, Leaves Papers to University Libraries, New Endowment Established in His Memory
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Estimating Aboriginal American Population: An Appraisal of Techniques with a New Hemispheric Estimate
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Dobyns has been awarded numerous fellowships in support of his research, including:
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Dobyns began his extensive publishing career while he was a graduate student.
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on July 3, 1925 to Henry F. and Susie Kell Dobyns, and spent his childhood in
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In 1966 Dobyns became the Chairman of the Department of Anthropology at the
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From Fire to Flood: Historic Human Destruction of Sonoran Desert Riverine
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American Indian holocaust and survival: a population history since 1492
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The Ghost Dance of 1889 among the Pai Indians of Northwestern Arizona
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Dobyns is best known for his theories about the population of the
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Tubac Through Four Centuries: A Historical Resume and Analysis
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Tubac Through Four Centuries: A Historical Resume and Analysis
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Zipporah Pottenger; Cara Richards; Mary Faith Patterson
680:"Setting Demographic Limits: The North American Case"
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163:in 1492. In 1966, Dobyns postulated a much larger
429:Indians of the Southwest: A Critical Bibliography
192:in 1943. Following his service, he attended the
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598:"Patterns of Demographic Change In the Americas"
306:in 1492. Before Dobyns, scholars estimated the
423:Spanish Colonial Tucson: A Demographic History
765:History of indigenous peoples of the Americas
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151:, author and researcher specializing in the
128:Chairman of the Department of Anthropology;
476:; Arizona Archives Online - Biography; 2012
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537:"In Appreciation of Henry Farmer Dobyns"
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147:(July 3, 1925 – June 21, 2009) was an
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347:National Endowment for the Humanities
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200:in Anthropology in 1949 as well as a
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710:Guide to the Henry F. Dobyns Papers
523:Guide to the Henry F. Dobyns Papers
130:Vice-president for Academic Affairs
16:American anthropologist (1925–2009)
275:(NEH). He was a professor at the
265:University of Florida, Gainesville
259:. In 1970, he joined the staff of
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294:North American Indian populations
188:and then immediately entered the
369:He was a lifetime member of the
363:Society for Applied Anthropology
269:University of Wisconsin–Parkside
349:fellowship for research at the
340:Social Science Research Council
745:University of Kentucky faculty
236:litigation over water rights.
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596:Ubelaker, Douglas H. (1992).
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186:Casa Grande Union High School
755:University of Arizona alumni
730:Writers from Tucson, Arizona
399:Papagos in the Cotton Fields
335:fellowship from 1956 to 1957
535:Jones, Kristine L. (2010).
441:Their Number Become Thinned
385:Dobyns died June 21, 2009.
333:National Science Foundation
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651:Thornton, Russell (1990).
495:Library; December 17, 2009
371:Arizona Historical Society
359:Bronislaw Malinowski Award
750:Cornell University alumni
573:Dobyns, Henry F. (1966).
553:10.1215/00141801-2010-001
204:in Anthropology in 1956.
365:in 1951 for his article
172:Early life and education
145:Henry Farmer Dobyns, Jr.
75:in anthropology (1960),
34:Henry Farmer Dobyns, Jr.
770:Native American history
367:"Blunders with Bolsas."
267:. Dobyns taught at the
277:University of Oklahoma
257:University of Kentucky
119:University of Oklahoma
115:University of Kentucky
493:University of Arizona
284:National Park Service
229:University of Arizona
194:University of Arizona
579:Current Anthropology
323:Awards and accolades
207:Dobyns received his
196:where he received a
184:. He graduated from
182:Casa Grande, Arizona
161:Christopher Columbus
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176:Dobyns was born in
342:fellowship in 1959
217:Cornell University
87:Cornell University
77:Cornell University
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83:Alma mater
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45:July 3, 1925
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740:2009 deaths
735:1925 births
627:Dobyns 1966
111:Employer(s)
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639:Jones 2010
547:(3): 359.
459:References
449:0870494007
353:in Chicago
250:New Mexico
157:demography
105:Demography
41:1925-07-03
361:from the
279:in 1989.
219:in 1960.
190:U.S. Army
135:Spouse(s)
69:Education
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304:Columbus
244:Teaching
233:Hualapai
612:30 July
443:(1983)
692:10 May
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425:(1976)
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407:(1959)
401:(1951)
223:Career
683:(PDF)
215:from
125:Title
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659:ISBN
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505:1491
445:ISBN
345:The
338:The
331:The
202:M.A.
198:B.A.
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51:, US
29:Born
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211:in
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