You raise some interesting points. The more I read about indigenous peoples, the less the left-wing image of them as “innocent children of nature” seems to fit.
“Savages” is an unkind word, but accurate in many cases, especially for the Aztecs and their practice of industrial-scale human sacrifice. No wonder all the tribes they oppressed were so willing to join Cortes and his conquistadores.
And by the way, I’m Polish and I always marvel at how well the Polacks and the Paisanos get along in this country — as witnessed by quite a few happy and enduring marriages in my extended family.
Where I come from, the “savages” in our history were Apaches, not Aztecs!!!!
The Apaches were also at a much lower level of civilization than Aztecs, Maya, etc. They wouldn’t raise the horses they needed for their raids, but always stole them from other Natives or whites!! It took a lot of doing to defeat the Apaches, and to pacify the Southwest.
By the way, the vast major of the deaths of Natives after the arrival of Europeans were unintentional—due to smallpox and other diseases. The immune systems of the Natives were unable to cope with Eurasian microbes, and no one understood why until the advent of modern immunology!