Chicago’s west side, 1980, when using Indian imagery to sell tobacco was still common. It’s one way that Indians have been acknowledged for their discoveries in the plant world.
Whiskey, guns and horses were introduced to the Native population while tobacco, potatoes and furs were introduced to the settlers. Tobacco, of course, would become an enormous health problem world-wide, but compared with the introduction of small pox to the Indian tribes…i’m not sure that’s a fair comparison – one is a product, the other a virus, but the tobacco habit still kills and has left its mark, embraced world wide and particularly in America and Europe. The fur craze in a world of billions would leave us with few mamals. Some things just die out over time, and that what it takes for our most intractable social dilemmas.