Uploaded July 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
From about 1600 to 1800, billions of passenger pigeons darkened the skies of North America, a story too incredible to believe except that it actually happened. Why did passenger pigeons not have such huge populations before 1600? I make the case that it is because Native Americans, primarily little boys practicing with bows and arrows, hunted the pigeons enough to prevent them from having a population explosion. That is, until after European diseases caused a massive dieoff of Native Americans. This is a major way in which Native Americans had an impact on the North American landscape: by preventing the passenger pigeon explosion that did, in fact, occur after the crash of Native populations.
From about 1600 to 1800, billions of passenger pigeons darkened the skies of North America, a story too incredible to believe except that it actually happened. Why did passenger pigeons not have such huge populations before 1600? I make the case that it is because Native Americans, primarily little boys practicing with bows and arrows, hunted the pigeons enough to prevent them from having a population explosion. That is, until after European diseases caused a massive dieoff of Native Americans. This is a major way in which Native Americans had an impact on the North American landscape: by preventing the passenger pigeon explosion that did, in fact, occur after the crash of Native populations.
