And then again, the United States has 200,000 professional artists, who earn a living from their craft:

http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos092.htm#projections_data

It seems a recurrent mistake that people underestimate how truly unprecedented and awesome our society is.

Also, a large, dense population with lots of wealth is much more art-friendly than your sparse, idyllic native American population. The Indians didn't come up with Beethoven, and there's a reason for that.