It would more likely be violent other people doing the arson.
Has any explanation been given? Have they estimated the dates of deaths?
Was it mass TB, or Kansas, nee Spanish, Flu?
That’s an interesting factoid. I googled the closest I came was this Majority of indigenous Canadians remain Christians despite residential schools
I was somewhat surprised, I thought they would have been successful by now in reclaiming religious believes that they had.
Coersion is strong in religions.
People can also be quite syncretic. One can be a orthodox Catholic and have a Native American flavor to one’s spirituality, or one can mix and match what they want and still call themselves Catholic (sometimes called a cafeteria Catholic). Some of my relatives emphasize their NA heritage, and are probably somewhere on that spectrum. My particular branch didn’t keep any traditions at all.
A friend and I are doing some community building stuff around first nations. As part of that, I thought it’d be good to get some history of FN folks locally, in the small area where we are. Like, this group was here, there’s a longhouse dug up over there, whatever.
There’s like no info available online. History where I live seems to start in the mid 1800’s when settlers arrived. The 5000 years before that aren’t documented.
There’s lots of info after that time, I’ve got a number of historical books on the local settlements.
Pretty systemic I guess.
Technology makes quite a difference. No written language, limited permanent dwelling structures and long periods of time make things disappear. Grave sites from pre-European settlement are not well-marked. I can’t think of any North American equivalent to Central American finds. Earthen mounds (that aren’t generally grave sites) are the largest structures in North America that survive.