re: CNN Drops Rick Santorum After Racist Comments About Native Americans

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Rail, roads, cities... we built that!

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It is surprising how untrue that is. Eastern tribes were reasonably civilized. For example, Indian roads existed throughout the East. Many originated as Eastern Bison migratory routes over millennia, and were further cleared by Indians as the Bison went extinct. "The Great Indian Trading Road ran from present-day Petersburg Va to Columbia SC." (I-85 route) All were serviceable for early colonial travel. Many present roads in the East still follow those old Indian routes.

Eastern Indians were agrarian. They lived in permanent villages or towns. They cleared thousands of acres of farm land, used crop rotation and combination agriculture to maintain soil fertility (e.g., corn and pole beans or sunflower in the same field when acreage was limited, or rotation allowing fallow recovery when multiple fields were available).

Over hundreds of years vast farm fields were cleared with fire, then progressive felling, and eventual stump removal.

As Europeans arrived with smallpox in tow, Indian populations were decimated. In some cases populations dwindled to 5-10% of original size. As small groups continually reconsolidated, they abandoned their roads, settlements and farmland. Europeans took advantage.