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Who is pretending it was a peaceful utopia? That's silly. Counting coup (showing bravery in battle) would earn a man great prestige. Of course there was war between tribes and people went hungry at times, during a harsh winter for example. However, before the railroads and the gold rush expanded out West many Sioux tribes lived in relative homeostasis with their environment and had a nearly constant buffet of Buffalo.

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The thing to keep in mind is that there were hundreds of Native American societies, and they varied considerably in their social practices. Slavery was fairly common on the Plains. The Pawnee still practiced human sacrifice in historic times. The Beaver Wars were unbelievably genocidal. It may be the case that some of the Siouan groups (such as the Quapaw) moved west was to escape social collapse and genocide. The enormous diversity of NAtive societies has been largely forgotten/erased through romanticization (itself a form of cultural domination) and sociocide).

Many of the tribes were non literate and had no form of written language which also contributes to the historical obfuscation. Many of those who did use a form of writing, such as the Mayans, had their historical writings deliberately destroyed by the Conquistadors and Inquisitors because their culture was seen as deeply heretical:

>We found a large number of books in these characters and, as they contained nothing in which were not to be seen as superstition and lies of the devil, we burned them all, which they regretted to an amazing degree, and which caused them much affliction.

-Bishop Diego de Landa, 1562

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