Non Agricultural Organization of People

There are lots of first hand reports of European people living among Native Americans before and around 1800. They're really interesting reading. It seems like every permutation of relationship happened between the european settlers and the natives. Some were best of friends. Some were adversarial. There were many types of commercial relationships, familial relationships, etc...

I think about William Atherton's account from time to time. He ended up as a captive during the war of 1812, and was really a sort of slave. He lived with a band of hunter gatherers for about 1 year and he witnessed what as basically the remnants of that lifestyle. By then, the settlers were already rapidly depleting the wilderness, and in only a couple of decades that way of life was impossible.

In the Ohio Country, tribes were organized geographically around drainage basins of lakes and rivers. That makes a lot of sense for a couple of reasons. For one, as hunter gatherers, that geographical organization roughly corresponds to the way animals migrate and move around throughout a year. Also, the native peoples used waterways as a primary means of transportation for many centuries prior to European settlement and the introduction of the horse.

Rather than being an idyllic edens filled with tranquil people, the tribes made war on each other for control over these areas and their resources.

When people are really totally dependent on the land to provide the idea that any man or woman could add some value, and hence have value as an individual might really be attenuated. In fact, other people are sort of natural impediments. This idea is something we see some environmentalists espousing.