But, as of real life 2013, there are only a few million native americans in the United States and Canada. The overwhelming bulk of the population of the western United States and Canada, in the vast majority of areas, is non-native american. Does this mean there were mass expulsions of whites and hispanics and blacks and so forth? Did the non-native populations remain but become second class citizens? Or do they remain and enjoy nominally equal rights despite being ruled by a tiny minority of the population?
-- Be aware there is a rather
significant high-level difference in approach to the subject between Nigel Findley's
Native American Nations and the later
Shadows of North America. Particularly, in the old material it's made rather clear that most of the NAN population are 'racially' Amerinds (many full-blooded) and this probably the design intent as well. The population numbers were chosen out of a hat (maybe even literally). Rule of cool and worldbuilding was the goal, not alt-history extrapolation. So, in the old NAN books when they talk about Amerinds they mean no-drek genetic lineages, "blood purity" and all.
-- Enter SONA. Several of the authors (including myself) felt that the populations were problematic for a number of reasons, and that the NAN in general was a bit
boring and one note. We took a look at the (then current) Amerind tribe sizes, ran some numbers for crazy population growth, and still didn't really like what we got. So the decision was made to rebalance populations. We hung our hats on an interesting statement in NAN2 that basically hinted that the populations were being misreported because the NAN weighted influence by national population. As it seemed unlikely the NAN countries were all conducting effective census canvasing this seemed plausible - so basically by 2062 the situation had become so farcical that the STC finally put its foot down and changed their system to fixed numbers of national reps, removing the need to report crazy numbers. That, and a healthy dose of "Well, how the hell does Danchekker know?"
-- The comment is in NAN2, p. 77:
> The Council tends to play fast and loose with its citizenship lists. I know for a fact that more than 10,000 dead people are still listed as citizens-in-good-standing. Why, pray tell?
> Prester John
> Probably some kind of political scam they're working on the NAN. Aren't some votes weighted by national population? If so, then the "brain drain" is also leeching away Athabasca's clout in the Sovereign Council.
> Golden Bear
> You got it, chummer.
> Willard
-- Note that "brain drain." Supposedly most of the NANs were losing young people hand over first to ..... somewhere not NAN. Findley didn't really flesh this out and was contradictory in places. Most of the NAN had ludicrously restricted immigration (still does in SONA) so new people weren't entering, supposedly tons were leaving ... and the Algonkian-Manitoo Council had 22.5 million people?
-- Hence the SONA population crunch, and the widening of the pool for potential Amerinds (basically, "one drop" citizenship status in most cases). This also helped explain the contradictory "Amerinds only" and "we love metahumans" material. So basically "Anglo" is a cultural perjorative now, and doesn't mean "white dude" since many of the NAN citizens are (and were) "white dudes."
-- That said, we all (imperial "we" I know there was some dissent) assumed that in the Shadowrun universe there were like an order-of-magnitude more Amerinds running around before Lone Eagle and all that. I don't believe that ever got communicated in the book, and frankly doesn't really matter. SONA also saw the end of the universally (minus Tsimshian/Aztlan) tree-hugging Danchekker whitewashing stuff.
If there were expulsions, I can only imagine that the vast majority of major cities in the area are now virtual ghost towns and the populations of the NAN countries are extremely low. If there weren't expulsions, then I can't imagine how the NAN countries function without basically having an apartheid situation, with native americans enjoying vast privileges compared to non-natives.
-- Some Americans and Canadians didn't want to, or couldn't, claim tribal status. They are on reservations. Which is a pretty shitty situation, since Anglo reservations are not sovereign, and they don't really have many protections in the Treaty of Denver (other then they get to stay). So in the Sioux the Anglo "tribe" are not full citizens, can't join the government or military, and are second-class in most respects.