> My personal conclusions from all this is that aboriginal people
> in North America are just about exactly like people from every
> where else. Human beings tend to be warlike when times make
> them strong and healthy, and peaceful when they are weak and
> hungry.
Really? I would disagree with that statement. What about the
Taino, the tribe first encountered by Columbus at San Salvador?
These people were so peaceable they didn't even carry weapons,
yet there was nothing at all difficult about their lifestyle -
they lived in a tropical climate where most food grew without
needing to be cultivated and the little they cultivated required
only 2 or 3 hours of labor per day. They had no worries about
cold weather and were pretty much disease-free before white
contact. In other words, they were strong and healthy, had an
easy life and a lot of leisure time on their hands. Yet they
managed to avoid becoming at all interested in warfare until an
outside force - Europeans - threatened them.
= Lee =