By Larsen Plyler

One of the “legacies” of works like Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United Statesis its treatment of Native Americans. People like Zinn accuse explorers and colonists of racial hatred and hostility, resulting in horrific massacres of Native Americans. He portrayed Native American societies as peaceful and environmentally conscious. This has become the mainstream perspective. But it does not reflect reality.

The numbers were (likely) not as high as they are often presented. The population of all Native Americans was probably between around 10 or 20 million people. Some estimates have been way higher, which suggests that Native devastation was much higher than what the numbers actually indicated. The numbers in North America were far smaller and could have been less than one million.

Native Americans were not “noble savages.” Native Americans were not at peace, were not all environmentally friendly, and were not permanently settled on the land. The Native cultures, like cultures on every continent, were a mixed bag. In fact, some of them were downright dreadful. For evidence, look at the human sacrifices and the skull racks of the Aztecs, or the offering of virgin girls by those at Cahokia.

Disease, not violence, was the great destroyer. First, the level of destruction is overstated. Rather than........

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