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The reason that most Native American tribes were extinct when the first Europeans arrived here is that they were mostly violent savages who murdered and cannibalized each other. The myth of the peaceful “Indians” at one with each other and nature, is a recent creation.

No doubt, the Indians engaged in the most brutal warfare imaginable, including massacres of innocents. I wasn't contesting that at all.

My question was specific to the claim of cannibalism. It wasn't uncommon for one tribe to accuse another of cannibalism; it was the most reliable way to get the white folks to help you take out a rival. The Europeans tended to believe the claims without investigation, and they went into the explorers' journals.

Anthropologists, most notably William Arens, started questioning accounts of cannibalism, and found that most were not corroborated by first-person eyewitness accounts or anthropological evidence. So for the last few decades, most historians and anthropologists have treated cannibalism claims skeptically, until supported by objective (or relatively so) evidence.

So that's the spirit in which I asked the question. And after checking a few of the articles Google turned up, it appeats that the Iroquois are one of the well-supported cases.

Thanks for the historical perspective. I agree with all you said. I was out in Santa Fe a number of years ago on the very week that anthropologists confirmed cannibalism among the Anasazi who are regarded by the locals as something above the Catholic Saints and just below Bill Clinton.

You’d think that they found the skeleton and remains of Jesus who had not risen from the dead. First there was disbelief then anger.

Back to your point, it is certainly understandable that claims of cannibalism got the white Europeans excited, since civilized persons had already rejected cannibalism for quite some time. Remember Idi Amin? Heh heh heh! That got em going.