There is a Theory that The Indians had a loose-knit confederacy that spread through most of North and South America.
Digression **********************
The Indians were handicapped by not having any acceptable beasts of burden, or Draft Animals--for the most part.
Some South Americans were using llamas as pack animals. Perhaps A few more Centuries of selecting heavily for greater Size and Strength might have wielded a beast big enough to ride.....
Anyway, I've seen folks oversea's plowing with Water Buffalo. Who says that are Bison couldn't have been domesticated?
I've also seen a few performers ride saddled Bison.
Looking for a good Draft, riding Animal--I might concentrate on Elk or Moose.
The female should be ridable year round. Antlered Reindeer pull Sleighs for the Laplanders--don't know why an Antlered Elk or Moose couldn't do the same--but you'd better look lively.
Personally, I have Ethical Objections to Castration, but it has been practiced from time immemorial. Don't suppose the Indians would have been anymore impressed by my scruples than anyone else in history.
Would an Elk or Moose castrated early in life, still grow Antlers?
Maybe the Buttons could be "polled" early in life, like a "Polled Hereford" {They're born polled}
I'm stressing this, because trying to ride a half-trained or bucking Antlered Beast would not be a Happy making thing.
Its really brutal--but perhaps if you waited till they were fully grown, and out of the Velvet, the animal could be tied, and you could saw them off like aN Elephant's tusks sometimes were. You could even put a big brass ball on the end.
Note: Pick One, Moose or Elk, and stick with it.
Can they have fertile hybrids--that might have some interesting possibilities.
Since Moose mostly eat Moss and Swamp plants, they might have more trouble surviving on a largely grain and hay diet.
Any way, selectively breed for bigger stronger and more docile Females. Keep a minimum of Males around for breeding purposes--and with one Stud covering 25-50 Does, you can change the genetics drastically in a few generations, by which few Males you choose to breed.
Since you will be judging a Male primarily for how good and sound a Does his father or grandfather sired.....
Who cares how docile or fit for hard labor his sons are?
You are going to have to keep careful and lists of both pedigrees and performance characteristics and have a good idea how selective Breeding works.
A pre-literate people may very well have been capable of remembering pedigrees going back many generations.
Sooner or later, you're going to have a very useful Mutation--for Draft and Saddle purposes Purposes.....
You're going to have a Mutant Male born without Antler Buds. In the wild, this strain would die out in one generation--how in hell could he win a mating duel?
But you want to breed him to every Doe around. A few of his sons should be born Antler Bud--less, just like Daddy.
When I say "You", I mean a nascent Indian Agricultural Society. ("Horticultural Society" is "Hoes and Digging Sticks" to move up to an "Agricultural Society"--Something the indians never managed to do.....
You need Plows and Draft Animals to pull the plow.
Some of the Aztec, Mayan, Incas, etc, were some of the most populous, Well Organized and Civilized Horticultural Societies in history.)
The second thing that our Indian Peoples lacked was a grain that could be sown. Yes well.....With Corn, Sunflower, Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Pumpkins, Squashed and Tomatoes--I think that they could have muddled by...
End Digression ***********************
The theory is, the Indians were much more organized and in touch, and had established trading routes.....
But a Plague of some sort settled about 70% of them about 100 years or so before Columbus Came.
Had Columbus came 200 years earlier, they would have been much more populous and much better informed.
The Indians of Columbus' day had largely forgotten most of what they knew of distant American Tribes and Geography. That's easy to happen when there is no written Language--though a few legends remained.
They were just starting to reach out tenatively, toward coming together in a lose-knit Confederacy once again--think about the Iriquois and the Incas.....
Granted, some of them still feuded a great deal.....
But if Columbus and The Europeans--Sounds like a Grunge-Rock group, don't it?--Had waited another century to take their big show on the Road--once again, they would have found America a much harder Nut to Crack.
Consider the Ancient Hindoo or Chinese people.....
Granted, both of these people had achieved writing, and an Agricultural Society.....
But even though the British took them over, and ruled them for centuries--and undoubtedly left their mark.....
They didn't come anywhere near as close to totally obliterating the Native races and customs.
The British sure did a number on the Aborigines in Australia though--though there are reasons for that too, but I haven't fully researched it.
Suffice it to say that they come much closer to 100% Genocide and Culture-icide in Australia than they did in America.
But think about a much more populous as "Civilized" North and South America back in mound-builder days.....
And no, I don't mean that they were all Theosophists and drove around in Golden Anti-Gravity Chariots.....
Nor does "Civilized" mean Benign or Benevolent.
Literally, "Civilized" means "City-Fied".
You can't have a Civilization without Big Cities--Big by Ancient Standards. It is debatable how diffuse a theoretical Very High Tech Society like ours could become, and still function.
Nor can you run a Big City without some of the Organizational Shibboleths of "Civilization".
Eric Hoffer once speculated that Jericho, which had recently been unearthed in Hoffer's time--and was a fairly large and very early human city--may have very well operated as a Fixed Hunter and Gatherer Society.....
Both game and wild cereals were very plentiful back then.
.....RVM45
