An isolated human in a simple society is usually a dead human... - Peter Farb

The Indians have not only refused to vanish, but have... managed to salvage a part of their native culture through revitalization and messianic movements. ...they are of further interest to anthropologists for the light they shed on such movements in general.

If you read Peter Farb's book, Man's Rise of Civilization, he goes through all these different cultures at first contact, and they very often figure out in very different ways, but typically the things that were in common among them, were that the idea of the accumulation of private property beyond your needs was considered a mental illness.

Perhaps we, who for so long regarded ourselves as bringers of light to the shadowy recesses of North America, will finally admit that there is much about which the Indians can illuminate us.