The "noble savage" image of Native Americans is as much a myth as the "virtuous cowboy". Native Americans were stone age primitives before European White men came to this continent. That is not to say that as individuals they were likely as decent or indecent as any other group of people. They pretty much were engaged in endless warfare among their tribes and had not advanced even to the point of developing written language or rudimentary technology that had developed a thousand years earlier in other parts of the world. On the other hand, Europeans brought more than horses, knowledge and firearms to the "New World", they also brought smallpox and their own form of religious bigotry and prejudice. The Native Americans have been romanticized by those on the Left who wish to denigrate American culture and values as well as our history, which while certainly not perfect from a moral perspective, did more to advance the quality of life than to damage it.