
About this episode
For 10,000 years, from the end of the Pleistocene to the coming of Old Worlders to America, a diverse population of Native people lived in North America while somehow managing to preserve almost all its biological riches. In contrast to the period when the prior Paleolithic hunters dominated America and the West, this 10,000 year phase of American history featured only one human-caused extinction that science has so far discovered. Was this some strange accident of continental history? Or were their concrete reasons for why, and how, Native America achieved this kind of environmental success?
Thank you to our sponsor Velvet Buck.
Subscribe now wherever you listen to podcasts. YouTube, Spotify, Apple, iHeart, Pandora, Amazon.
MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Youtube Clips
Check out more MeatEater's American History audio originals "The Long Hunters" and "Mountain Men"
Subscribe to The MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTube
Shop MeatEater Merch
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Get every episode summarized
Each time The American West publishes, we email you a written briefing from the transcript — the topics, who appeared, and any specific claims, with the ad reads skipped.
Email me new episodesFree for 3 shows. No card needed.
Hosts & guests
No transcript yet
This episode has not been transcribed. Request it and it moves to the front of the queue.
More episodes
More from The American West

Introducing: Gunfighters, with Bryan Burrough
The American West

Ep. 42: Favorite Films About the West
The American West

Ep. 41: Favorite Books About the West
The American West

Ep. 40: Becoming Natives of Place in the American West
The American West
