Dan Flores

Another intriguing look at native religious traditions with respect to animals comes from the work of an anthropologist who lived with the Athabascan-speaking Koyukon peoples of Alaska. The Koyukans preserve an ideology with powerful echoes of how life in the 10 millennia span of Native America must have worked.

Keen observational naturalists with a highly refined knowledge of animal behavior, the Koyukans traced their link with animals back to what they called distant time, when animals were human and spoke human languages. The deity animal was ever watching Raven. Raven rarely missed anything and was always alert to violations of taboos about how to treat animals and respect them.

Keen observational naturalists with a highly refined knowledge of animal behavior, the Koyukans traced their link with animals back to what they called distant time, when animals were human and spoke human languages. The deity animal was ever watching Raven. Raven rarely missed anything and was always alert to violations of taboos about how to treat animals and respect them.

Keen observational naturalists with a highly refined knowledge of animal behavior, the Koyukans traced their link with animals back to what they called distant time, when animals were human and spoke human languages. The deity animal was ever watching Raven. Raven rarely missed anything and was always alert to violations of taboos about how to treat animals and respect them.

Many Raven stories were about the bad luck that befell people who transgressed against the animal world. Animals were critical to a major life force, luck, that could make or break a person's life. Luck was an award from ever watching Raven as a result of correct behavior towards animals. And the most correct behavior of all was treating them as kin.

Many Raven stories were about the bad luck that befell people who transgressed against the animal world. Animals were critical to a major life force, luck, that could make or break a person's life. Luck was an award from ever watching Raven as a result of correct behavior towards animals. And the most correct behavior of all was treating them as kin.

Many Raven stories were about the bad luck that befell people who transgressed against the animal world. Animals were critical to a major life force, luck, that could make or break a person's life. Luck was an award from ever watching Raven as a result of correct behavior towards animals. And the most correct behavior of all was treating them as kin.

10,000 years ago, the entire human population of planet Earth numbered only about 4 million. Across all the Americas, humans then likely made up only a quarter of that number. North America probably had barely 500,000 people then, fewer than a single large city in our time. Agriculture changed that.

10,000 years ago, the entire human population of planet Earth numbered only about 4 million. Across all the Americas, humans then likely made up only a quarter of that number. North America probably had barely 500,000 people then, fewer than a single large city in our time. Agriculture changed that.

10,000 years ago, the entire human population of planet Earth numbered only about 4 million. Across all the Americas, humans then likely made up only a quarter of that number. North America probably had barely 500,000 people then, fewer than a single large city in our time. Agriculture changed that.

But because big parts of the continent were unsuited to farming, and because farming was a new development, America wasn't entirely remade by agriculture the way Europe or Asia were. By 500 years ago, the best guess is that America north of Mexico had grown its population to just under 4 million people.

But because big parts of the continent were unsuited to farming, and because farming was a new development, America wasn't entirely remade by agriculture the way Europe or Asia were. By 500 years ago, the best guess is that America north of Mexico had grown its population to just under 4 million people.

But because big parts of the continent were unsuited to farming, and because farming was a new development, America wasn't entirely remade by agriculture the way Europe or Asia were. By 500 years ago, the best guess is that America north of Mexico had grown its population to just under 4 million people.

4 million people spread across a landscape that in the 21st century supports 400 million seems explanation enough for why humans and wild animals coexisted well for so long in Native America. That might be an argument that for hunting and gathering and subsistence farming economies, 4 million people was just about the carrying capacity of the American landscape. The effects accumulated though.

4 million people spread across a landscape that in the 21st century supports 400 million seems explanation enough for why humans and wild animals coexisted well for so long in Native America. That might be an argument that for hunting and gathering and subsistence farming economies, 4 million people was just about the carrying capacity of the American landscape. The effects accumulated though.

4 million people spread across a landscape that in the 21st century supports 400 million seems explanation enough for why humans and wild animals coexisted well for so long in Native America. That might be an argument that for hunting and gathering and subsistence farming economies, 4 million people was just about the carrying capacity of the American landscape. The effects accumulated though.

Across the final 1500 years of Native America before Old Worlders arrived, a cumulative total of 150 to 200 million people lived out their lives north of Mexico. America was no howling wilderness. It was a long-inhabited, lived-in world. Humans are biological, after all, and no species gets a free ride in nature.

Across the final 1500 years of Native America before Old Worlders arrived, a cumulative total of 150 to 200 million people lived out their lives north of Mexico. America was no howling wilderness. It was a long-inhabited, lived-in world. Humans are biological, after all, and no species gets a free ride in nature.

Across the final 1500 years of Native America before Old Worlders arrived, a cumulative total of 150 to 200 million people lived out their lives north of Mexico. America was no howling wilderness. It was a long-inhabited, lived-in world. Humans are biological, after all, and no species gets a free ride in nature.

In some American archaeological sites, animal remains show a significant decline over time. The massive Emeryville Mound site on the shore of San Francisco Bay portrays a steady decline in the bones of sturgeon, salmon, deer, elk, and pronghorns, demonstrating a drawdown of local wildlife as human populations grew in native California.