The way they really were …

… Dances With Myths - Reason.com.

In sum, faced with the reality of scarcity, Indians understood the importance of incentives and built their societies around institutions that encouraged good human and natural resource stewardship. Though ethics and spiritual values may have inculcated a respect for nature, more than mysticism encouraged conservation of scarce resources. Rather, an elaborate set of social institutions that today would be called private property rights discouraged irresponsible behavior and rewarded stewardship. As historian Louis Warren puts it, "Among other things, Indian history is a tale of constant innovation and change....If there is a single, characteristic Indian experience of the environment, perhaps it is the ability to change lifeways in radical fashion to maintain culture and identity."