The estimated number of Native Americans killed due to colonization, forced removals, massacres, diseases, and other violent and systemic actions since European contact in 1492 is staggering and varies widely depending on the scope and methods of counting. Estimates generally range from 12 million to as high as 175 million indigenous deaths across the Western Hemisphere. In the present-day United States alone, about 12 to 13 million Native American deaths are estimated from 1492 to the present. This includes deaths from massacres, forced relocation such as the Trail of Tears (where thousands died from exposure, disease, and starvation), and other causes tied to colonization and government policies. The Trail of Tears alone caused several thousand Cherokee deaths, with estimates around 4,000 to 8,000 lost during forced removal. Across the entire Western Hemisphere, one scholar estimated the Indigenous population decline at about 70 million, but when factoring in multiple generations who would have been born and died during this period, the total deaths could be around 175 million. Violent events like the Sand Creek Massacre, Wounded Knee Massacre, and other campaigns also contributed to the loss of tens of thousands of lives. In summary, millions of Native Americans were killed through a combination of warfare, forced removal, starvation, disease, and systemic violence during and after European colonization, with some of the most comprehensive estimates placing total deaths in the present- day United States around 12-13 million and across the Americas possibly exceeding 100 million.
