Rejecting the notion that the aboriginal nations acculturated to a European pattern, Smith shows that Old World epidemic diseases caused immediate population loss in interior areas. He develops a chronological framework for the period 1540-1670 based on European trade goods, which allows him to date the aboriginal sites and to examine the tempo of demographic shifts with more precision than archaeologists before him commanded.
The effects of early European contract—documented with data that include artifacts associated with burial practices, public works, and craft specialization—traveled farther than the European explorers themselves, as depopulation led to political breakdown and social collapse.
One product of this collapse, Smith argues, was the Creek Confederacy of the eighteenth century, a mix of refugee populations who banded together in defense alliances against the Europeans and other Indians.
