Anasazi

[Carl:]
> I don't know if this link came from here...
>
> http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2002/04/rauch.htm

Carl,

The Atlantic magazine kicks ass!
I think it was the March issue had a feature article
'1491' going over the research on what this continent
was like that year before disease killed more than 90%
of the population.

It seems likely that the population of North America
was greater than that of Europe at the time. De Soto
roamed through this part of Tennessee, then out to
Memphis, across the Mississippi, then even to East
Texas. Along the way he encountered vast cities with
large buildings, plazas, etc.

By the time the next explorer passed through that area,
there was no one left, former cities buried by the
returned forest.

Also seems like us Indians *created* the Great Plains
using enormous-scale land management techniques to
create the ideal environment for deer, antelope and
buffalo to flourish.

Technologywise, we were way ahead of the Europeans who
were entrenched in backwards oppresive political
systems and oppressed by disease, povery and misery.

Concerning Anasazi of the article you mention, the term
Anasazi is a Navajo word that means 'ancient enemy',
what the non-native Navajos who were resettled in the
area called my ancestors. We, their descendents, now
favor the term "Ancestral Puebloans" rather than
Anasazi.

- Jeff