00:00Easter Island is known for its Moai statues, but for nearly two decades, the people who
00:08built them were thought to have disappeared due to ecocide.
00:11With author Jared Diamond writing in his book about it, in just a few centuries, the people
00:15of Easter Island wiped out their forest, drove their plants and animals to extinction, and
00:20saw their complex society spiral into chaos and cannibalism.
00:24However, experts now say the genetic data points to another cause of their demise, colonization
00:29and slavery.
00:30The report outlines that in the 1600s, the Rapa Nui people were not completely isolated,
00:35but their civilization was quite small, only around 1,500 to 3,000 people.
00:39In fact, their population was growing until the mid-1800s, when Peruvians began coming
00:44to the island to kidnap slaves.
00:46This is also around the time when colonists from Europe brought new diseases that killed
00:50nearly everyone.
00:51In the end, the new research unveils, there were only around 110 of the Rapa Nui people
00:55left.
00:56But recent research has also suggested that the same people reached the Americas before
01:00their European counterparts.
01:02According to the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, today some 1,500 indigenous
01:07Rapa Nui people live on Easter Island.
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