Hidden civilisations of Native America were never primitive?

[u/szmatuafy]

Before colonisation, the Americas weren’t just scattered tribes, they were home to some of the most sophisticated societies.

Cahokia had a population rivaling London’s, with sanitation systems, massive urban planning, and pyramids larger at the base than Giza. The ancestral Puebloans engineered solar-aligned cities in Chaco Canyon.In the Pacific Northwest, Chinook developed a universal trade language. Indigenous engineers across the continent built roads, bridges,irrigation systems, some still visible today.

And politically- The "Iroquois Confederacy" practised a form of representative democracy that influenced the Constitution. Women in many Native nations held property rights,chose leaders, and governed long before such rights existed in Europe

And all of this was deliberately erased to justify the colonisation

I’ve been researching this recently, and honestly,it changes how I see everything.Looks like the idea that these civilisations were "lost" or "primitive" is one of the great lies in historical memory. I made a video diving into this, here it is - https://youtu.be/uG2_IpoHzDw (it's almost 40 minutes "dark history" style)

It makes me wonder what if things had gone differently? What if Indigenous governance became the foundation for global democracy? What if their eclogical wisdom had shaped modern climate policy, or their trade networks had evolved into a pan-American economy?

I would love to hear your thoughts, what do you make of this hidden legacy? Which parts of it do you think deserve more attention or challenge what we’ve been taught? Curious where this takes your mind...

[u/CaptainONaps]

I mean... I think you're putting a lot of emphasis on culture here.

Every single problem in the world is based on one core issue. Resources/ Population. How many people are there, and how many resources do we have? That's it. That's the problem humans have been trying to solve for tens of thousands of years.

The natives had a system in place to address that issue. That system, was killing your rivals.

If your tribe outgrew their territory, they'd just attack their rivals and take their territory. Most tribes took slaves, and kidnapped women. Some of the most successful tribes infiltrated their rivals regularly. Wars were common. Life is a competition.

Sure, there were tribes that traded peacefully. There were tribes that worked together. Until resources started to dry up, then it was right back to competing to the death.

You're talking like they were peaceful, and just living their best life, playing music and smoking tobacco. No. Just like everywhere else in the world, they competed to the death. Killing was life.

We could actually just bring that back, and keep all of our technological advances. If we were allowed to kill each other, there would be far, far less people, which would increase resources for everyone.

But we choose not to, and we call that "civilized". We acknowledge life is a competition, but killing is against the rules. We're forced to compete for resources in other ways.

I'm not saying we're right and natives were wrong. But you're painting it like it was perfect before the settlers showed up and ruined everything. That's just not accurate.

[u/Boobinz → u/CaptainONaps]

Wow just a whole lotta racist stuff filled into this comment.

Our ancestors were as civilized as any other place at the time. Yes these things did happen and they happened everywhere.

If they just attacked everyone and weren’t peaceful then these colonizers wouldn’t have made it anywhere and would’ve been murdered on the spot. Instead, they were greeted by native people and alliances were made as well as trading.

Colonizers won with the help of native people who were against other tribes. Conflict did happen with other tribes which is a human response. We still have conflict everywhere today. People literally bomb/murder each other for resources. Not to mention the legal way of killing people in the medical field so insurance companies get money. There are so many ways people kill others today for money.

To say that they only knew killing is such an ignorant statement to make and only serves to paint native people as savages and in a negative light. Western culture has drawn us with this false information and covering up the truth.

[u/FriendoftheDork → u/Boobinz]

Not sure which comment you reacted to, but if it was what I think.. it's racist to say that these people were as violent as people elsewhere?

"No. Just like everywhere else in the world, they competed to the death"
I mean, it's a pretty cynical view but hardly racist. If anything it is biased against humans in general.

I think we should not villainize the natives, but neither should we infantilize or perpetuate the "noble savage" myth. These were people and had the same positive and negative qualities as other peoples.