them. This is particularly important in studying Native American history because of the Colombian exchange, overgrazing by European animals, and the fur trade.

Possibly the most important change in the Native American environment was during the arrival of the Europeans. There was an exchange of livestock, animals, plants, and diseases more commonly known as the Colombian Exchange. In the late 1400s, Christopher Columbus, on his second voyage to the Hispaniola region of the Caribbean islands, brought with him “more than a thousand settlers, and a cargo that included horses, pigs, cattle, sheep, goats, chickens, dogs, seeds, cuttings for fruit trees, wheat, and sugarcane,” (Calloway, p. 70). Despite the many of the helpful crops and livestock brought from Europe to the Americas, the Europeans also brought many Old World diseases that harmed the Indians.

Another aspect of environmental history in the Americas that impacted Native American societies is the overgrazing of Indian agricultural areas. Often sheep from European settlers overgrazed on Native American farming areas and caused mass erosion and the land was unable to be used by the Indian societies. This, in turn, caused starvation for many Native Americans and they were forced to move somewhere where the land was farmable.

A final way that the environmental history of the Americans continent impacted the Native Americans is through the fur trade. North America had many animals with pelts that could be made into clothing, while Europe did not have as many. This caused these furs to be an important commodity for trading for Indians. “Europeans provided capital, organization, manufactured goods, and equipment for the trade. Indians prov