[Claud]

I personally believe that there was once a much greater population in North America than what we found when we began settling.

I absolutely agree. The Europeans seem to have discovered a continent that was already in decline, in the equivalent of their Dark Ages: I see Iroquois, Cherokee, and the Shawnee like the Vandals and Goths, tough societies retaining some memory of a civilization they may well have helped bring down. Cahokia like a fallen Rome to the whole Mississippian Complex: the center of a huge far-flung commercial and ceremonial network. DeSoto and some of the earliest explorers of the Natchez etc in the Southeast give us the last glimpse of a dying civilization.

[cripplecreek]

The same is true of south and central American pre Colombian societies. I’m not sure what the Aztec did differently but they did somehow survive and keep their culture largely intact.

The Aztec did have a form of written language which is a real lifesaver amid a societal collapse. Unfortunately the Spaniards trashed most of it.