suggest that there were tens of millions of people living in the Americas when Columbus arrived who had a profound impact on the land (cultivating fruit trees, selectively burning prairie), developed corn, built large cities even in the Amazon basin, and had fairly sophisticated governments and trade. This makes sense because it boggles to mind to think that humans lived in the Americas for 35,000 years and did nothing but be hunter-gatherers. They flourished while Europe was in the middle of the Dark Ages. Unfortunately, they had virtually no immunity to disease particularly those transmitted by farm animals introduced by the Spanish. There is evidence to suggest that by the time the Pilgrims arrived they were dealing with the remnant survivors of various plagues.

Teach that.