Amerindian Culture

[DominusNovus]

What if the Amerindians had a more European culture? For example, if they didn't revere the land and saw it as something to posess, as the Europeans did, ditto for animals. How would this change European and American attitudes towards them?

[Norman]

Let's not confuse current american indian cultural values with the values of these groups 4 or 5 hundred years ago. They have been greatly influenced by the concept of the 'noble savage' (Rousseau?), and are largely a relatively modern phenomena.

As one web site states:
"The concept of the "noble savage" may have been, in part, an attempt to reestablish the value of indigenous lifestyles and delegitimatize the imperial excesses - establishing them as morally superior to counter-balance the perceived political and economic inferiorities."

However, if the indian cultures were more like us I don't believe it would really have made a whit of difference. The new disease environment would still have wiped them out. An remember that the Iroqouis and Cherokee had adopted many of the ways of the European - in the end it didn't protect them against Jackson.