It depends on what you define genocide as. The majority of the deaths were not part of an intentional plan to completely exterminate a group of people. The vast majority of the Native Americans died from diseases such as smallpox and hepatitis A, as Charles Mann discusses in 1491. The Europeans, and later the Americans, did not intentionally pass along any diseases to native populations. Now it can be argued that some of the actions carried out by the Americans, such as removing Indian children and placing them in boarding schools to destroy any vestiges of tribal culture and heritage, was cultural genocide.

isn't this genocide?

Here's a recent round-up of posts regarding genocides against aboriginal peoples within the US. Tl;dr: yes, but be aware of which incidents do and do not fall under the definition

• Would it be accurate to describe what happened to the natives americans as a genocide?

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