The more relevant question with concern to the environment and hunter/gatherer
societies (including native americans) is whether their way of life is really
ecologically stable. In other words, there is the idea that the rise to
agriculture is
inevitable (but not because of self-organizing complexity) but because human
poplulations over the life span of the species have proved to demographically
unstable and that agriculture and state structures arise hand in hand as a
result
of the crisis. What this suggests for the Native Americans is that, given
the fact they produced a number of agricultural civilizations, is that they
were on the same trajectory as the rest of humanity but, for whatever reason,
had a later start at it.
