Democracy in the Americas

I usually don't pay attention to NA topics to avoid alarm bells going off. I did read this one and experienced no trauma over the interpretation.

Often there is the portrayal of savagery rather than people living generally normal lives. The violence often projected on NAs is because of the constant onslaught of colonization and NA nations trying to keep away from the violence and diseases that came with Euro=American encroachment.

Archeological artifacts do suggest, however, that native-to-native trade expanded over time. Emory Dean Keoke and Kay Marie Porterfield, authors of the Encyclopedia of American Indian Contributions to the World, say that the Hohokam tribe, centered in present day Arizona, traded seashells, which they had acquired from the Mojave tribe, for buffalo hides from various southern Plains tribes. “By between 500 and 200 B.C., North American Indians had established a vital network of trade.” link

Of little import nowadays except in realizing NA's are people like any other until Genocide is forced upon them 500 years.