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That link isn't very accurate. For one thing, Navajo are athabascans, as in they speak an Athabascan language. The tribe the language family is named after is i

That link isn't very accurate. For one thing, Navajo are athabascans, as in they speak an Athabascan language. The tribe the language family is named after is in Alaska/Canada though, not Texas. The massive herds of Bison you're thinking of were primarily a feature of the great plains. Bison existed across much of the rest of the continent, but in much less overwhelming numbers towards the periphery outside the plains. The modern Navajo nation is right on the edge of that historical range. The Sioux (the Lakota among them) are one of the larger ethnolinguistic groups on the plains, along with others like the Blackfoot I mentioned. Here's a rough and highly imperfect map of the "territories": https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Early_Localization_Native_Americans_USA.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Early_Lo... Also, this is a matter of some disagreement between the ivory tower and many of the Diné themselves, but it's a bit ambiguous to use the term Navajo prior to the Long Walk in the 1870s, when the Bison range had already retreated onto the plains. Navajo prior to that are usually identified much more closely with other Apachean groups. The technical term here is "ethnogenesis".

bparsons 3y ago
There are bison herds up in Dene territory in Northern Alberta and the Northwest Territories. However to your point, I think they prefer to fish and hunt fowl and caribou.
angiosperm 3y ago
Before the European invasion, bison ranged from Maine to Florida and Texas to Alberta. We don't know their numbers. Before the invasion, forest cover was kept down across much of the continent by regular burns. After the pandemics were seeded, the burns ceased, and the massive uptake of carbon regrowing the forests caused what is often called a "little ice age". The new forest cover did not favor bison. We don't know the historical range of Na-Dene or Lakota, or other modern nations; we know only where they were centuries after the aforementioned pandemics wiped out a large majority of all populations across two continents. The current Pueblo habit of adobe dwellings is suited to their now-confined range. One may reasonably doubt those living in wetter climates used them.

bparsons 3y ago

There are bison herds up in Dene territory in Northern Alberta and the Northwest Territories. However to your point, I think they prefer to fish and hunt fowl and caribou.

angiosperm 3y ago

Before the European invasion, bison ranged from Maine to Florida and Texas to Alberta. We don't know their numbers. Before the invasion, forest cover was kept down across much of the continent by regular burns. After the pandemics were seeded, the burns ceased, and the massive uptake of carbon regrowing the forests caused what is often called a "little ice age". The new forest cover did not favor bison. We don't know the historical range of Na-Dene or Lakota, or other modern nations; we know only where they were centuries after the aforementioned pandemics wiped out a large majority of all populations across two continents. The current Pueblo habit of adobe dwellings is suited to their now-confined range. One may reasonably doubt those living in wetter climates used them.