It's not "noble savage" to note that Native Americans domesticated numerous crops used globally today and that such domestication was a technological achievement, much like the domestication of the horse in central Eurasia or the cultivation of rice in Asia. It's basically the opposite idea: rather than being "naturally" in balance with nature, Native Americans figured it out the same way humans figured everything else, through trial and error, and at the cost of countless lives. It is closer to the stereotype to believe that Plains Indians had some kind of timeless way of life, instead of recognizing they occupied a temporary historical niche that lasted between the introduction of the horse and the near extinction of the buffalo. Introducing history to our understanding of Native American achievements and failures is the only way to treat them as equally human as every other culture.
