cuakknife

>literally erased a continent's worth of civilizations

You're thinking about the USA. Other native american cultures in America (the continent) faced different degrees of destruction, but I wouldn't say "literally erased" them.

I see a lot of people saying "indian" and "non-indian" in this thread. As someone with native american heritage (but not from the USA) I always cringe when I see these terms. Calling native americans "Indian" was a missunderstanding that, for some reason, europeans didn't care enough to rectify for centuries. Next time you're using it, please think about this and go for native american instead :D (or something equivalent!)