Here's the screenshot: https://i.imgur.com/DMVeIve.png
I was watching this video from the American Museum of Natural History showing human population growth over time. I'd been keeping an eye on pre columbian North America, and was unsurprised to see Cahokia and cities in mesoamerica, but have no clue what that settlement on the Pacific coast (close-ish to Vancouver?) would be.
So basically: What is this settlement? What culture lived there? Why is so large? What happened to it?
It appears to be a mistake. The dot on the map would place it near the mouth of the Fraser River. There are a number of sites near the mouth of the Fraser in Coast Salish territory, but none held anywhere near one million people. In fact all of them together would not. I think this may be a case where the dot is an amalgamation of numerous population centers over a large area. But even this would be inconsistent with the prevailing population estimate of all indigenous peoples of the Northwest Coast at around 200,000.
Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 7, Northwest Coast, W. Sturtevant ed., Wayne Suttles vol. ed. Smithsonian, 1990; Pg. 147, Fig.5, Northwest Coast Population History, 1774-1874
Cahokia does not appear on that map or in the video at all. The dot in the Southeast is close to Etowah and Coosa, which were the early and later capitals of the largest confirmed nation in eastern North America at the time of contact. Neither had a population of a million though, nor would Cahokia even at its peak.
This makes me think that some of these dots are regional approximations, but what those regions are is not well defined.
