An archaeology article I read long ago about a farm in Subroman Britain (5th century AD, i.e. after the emperor Honorius called the Roman legions back to the continent in 409 AD) noticed that almost the first change in occupation patterns was conversion of the Roman farmhouse/villa, which had been decorated for obvious residence, into a strictly work location. Residents removed to hilltops and only came down to the old farmstead, which had been located in the middle of the bottomlands, convenient to the best fields, for work.
Spanish vineyards changed their operations in the 5th and 6th centuries, too -- relocating close to navigable rivers. Similar thinking: quick retreat by water if needed. The old fields and vineyards continued to be worked, but people changed where they lived and slept.
But if an enemy wants to eliminate one’s food supply, farm fields and livestock are an easy target.
If one is hiding in the hills, one sits there looking down watching one’s crops being destroyed.
If people can live exactly as the American Indians lived, one can live in nature with no modern machinery.
How many of us can do that and would choose to do that as opposed to being a resistance within ?
And, of course, without modern machinery the American Indians were doomed.
The nazi takeover of Europe during WWII is a very accurate picture of who how a statist regime with para-military police plays out amongst a general population.
The towns that were left alone the most were those which were too small for it to make any sense to devote resources to completely control, and even those had spies in them and were not completely left alone. Basically, in both large cities and small towns, survival within the regime becomes the reality that the population faces.
People soon come to realize that the most dangerous weapon they possess is the ideas and history that they secretly maintain and pass down to their children so that one day, no matter how far in the future, the ideas are there to rise again in power.