> True, but they tended to come into conflict with each other. And they > had some very real problems when they came into conflict with a > society with higher technology (and with more diseases). I'd be careful there. Yes, they came into conflict with each other. It was not their socio-economic structure that destroyed the Native Americans when they came into conflict with the Europeans, it was the fact that they didn't have immunity to the diseases the Europeans brought with them. In fact, one should note that in Colonial times, men like William Bradford attributed the colonies success not to guns, warfare, or a superior society, but rather to the fact that great diseases wiped out the Native Americans, literally leaving cleared land perfect for crops (which the Native Americans had been farming) for the colonists. Also, it should noted that in Massachusetts, it actually became illegal to leave the town, because so many colonists fled the towns and went to live in these Native Americans communes, never to return. There are numerous accounts where after colonists recaptured former colonists now living with the Native Americans, that the former colonists did not want to return. But I suppose this is a bit of a tangent.