In his book Collapse, Jared Diamond addresses a few of the facts and myths about the innate abilities of indigenous peoples to be effective stewards of the land. Lucky for us, google books allows us to view his introductory thoughts on the topic online starting at the bottom of page 8... here

I've raised it around here before, but both Diamond's Guns, Germs, & Steel and his Collapse are fascinating and compelling. Anyone else think so? I'd suggest that a few of the hypotheses advanced in GG&S go a long way toward explaining why many (perhaps mistakenly) believe that the original inhabitants of North America were mostly benign symbiotes.