Someone here on the 'Fire not many months ago familiar with Native America culture had a different take on it. He wrote that in whatever Native America tribe he was familiar with, that anything was fair game, and if you weren't strong enough to protect your property or your woman, then F you, you are a pussy and deserved to get taken advantage of because you were weak.
Seems like a gross generalization if we're speaking of the past, but then I’m just a White guy who read a lot of books. But generalizing on my own hook the basis for most Indian societies was the extended family;your siblings, first second and third cousins, in-laws, aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces etc. So its not like you were facing the world alone. Conversely, if you decided to screw with some guy you weren’t just messing with him, you were messing with his whole family
Tied into that a tremendous amount of social prestige associated with gift-giving, sharing and generosity. I forget which trader observed that a good rifle might change hands five times in a year, gifted each time. The old saw is largely true: Amongst Americans their leaders were their richest men, amongst Indians their leaders were their poorest.
We also know that respect and leadership positions were usually earned rather than inherited, which indicates the power of public opinion and peer pressure within the tribe. Couple that with the concept that when you are surrounded by enemies, the goodwill and cooperation of all the extended families within the tribe was essential. Hence the “rules” directed theft killing and violence outwards.
Stealing of a rival’s wife of course did occur, but what is usually overlooked is that those wives left of their own free will. In the East at least, the wife owned most of the material goods AND the kids and enjoyed considerable freedom in choosing partners, to end a marriage all she had to do was put his things outside the door. If she did that too easily however,.she would run afoul of gossip and public opinion, even worse if the rejected husband committed suicide and/or purposefully got himself killed in war. Long story short,divorce rates of around 50% were about the same as our modern rate in the US.
As fpr the modern day, seems like there's "suburban reservations" back East, and the ones everybody writes bad things about in the West.
