So I've been giving some thought to this question lately, although I haven't had time to get serious about any research.

So, pre-colonial Native American tribes varied from highly agrarian, like the Navajo who cultivated corn and herded animals, to minimally agrarian, like the Iriquois, who cultivated corn, squash and beans, but otherwise were hunter/gatherers, to nomadic tribes like the Cheyenne, who followed the buffalo and gathered on the way.

All these cultures, according to what I have learned so far, were considerably more healthy than we are. The Navajo tended to be smaller, less fierce. But the records indicate that the western nomadic tribes, and the Iriquois were tall, strong, and deadly, and their health completely shocked the Europeans.

So, what I've been thinking about is where we have to draw the line, and how we decided.

I know there is a company out there that is specializing in traditional native foods. I saw it on PBS or the Discovery channel one time. I've been thinking about experimenting with some of those new to me foods.

Has anyone researched Native American diets, and pondered this issue yet?

Weren't Native Americans all hunter-gatherers until just a few thousand years ago? If you went back 10,000 years would you not find all tribes hunting and gathering, and none of them farming? I have read somewhere that in some of the tribes that did adopt agricultural ways, their health did start to decline. Granted they were still way healthier than any of us (they had not gone through the industrial age). Once the Europeans that had gone through that age came to America, and put these Natives on reservations, these Native American's health declined extremely rapidly!

What you are explaining is the transition from one era (paleo) to another (Neolithic). As far as "where we draw the line"... I draw it back where people were clearly hunter-gatherers. I think agriculture is like the de-evolution of humans... it is like the "worst mistake we ever made" (to quote one author on the subject). And this probably applies to more than just diet. It applies to the world's ecology overall. As you said, the more hunter-gatherer the tribe, the healthier they were!