castaways in the new world

Prologue: The Storm The waves lashed at the wooden ship, rocking it violently. Its hull creaked loudly, seemingly ready to come apart at the seams. On the first day of the unceasing storm, they still bothered to stay outside, struggling against the wind, rain, and damage to the meagre rigging...

By Native Americans, I mean all pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas, from the Arctic to Tierra del Fuego. In OTL, many of the different native cultures succumbed to Old World diseases they never could have developed immunity for, up until that point (due to a multitude of factors)...