Given economic opportunity, I don't think there is a noble race on our planet.
Lol.....well said.
Absolutely. Humans are just another biological species on this planet. Like any species the human populations have always expanded to the limits their resources could bear.
Thus humans have always "lived in harmony with nature" just like any other apex predator and omnivore. They breed until they experience a cataclysmic population reduction, then they breed again.
The Native American population is estimated to have been around 60,000,000 in 1492 when European pathogens began racing across this hemisphere. It is estimated that number was reduced to 6,000,000 by year 1500. That number is estimated to be further reduced to 600,000 by year 1800.
So yes, the bison was at the height of a population explosion by 1800, as the population of their sole serious predator had been decimated. Much like cottontails or jackrabbits if something eliminates all the foxes, coyotes, and raptors in their environment.
If one wishes to discuss the elimination of the bison herds during the 19'th century, it is well to remember there were not enough Native Americans left on the plains to make any kind of dent in their population.
It is also well to remember that the US Army put a bounty on bison. $1/tongue when $1 was a good day's wages. You did not even have to skin them. Just cut out the tongue and pack it in a barrel with salt.
The skinners were scavengers after the fact during that time. The power distribution belts used in most factories, similar to the familiar tractor to threshing machine belts, were most commonly made from bison leather when it was commonly available.
Somewhere Union Pacific has published a chart of the hundreds of thousands of tons of bison bones transported from the prairies per year. I have seen it in the past, but can not locate it at this time.
All this to say: No the Native American was no noble steward of his environment. He was just a human animal like every other race on the planet.
