Another book is called "The ecological Indian", and is about demystifying that image. Also recommended reading!
The scary thing is when people try to lump together all the tribes in America, but their habits, ideas etc were extremely diverse.
Some were very connected to the earth and careful not to overhunt/overfish, others were extremely wasteful (as with the buffalo for instance, but not all tribes). Some even had ideas that there were underground prairies were the buffalos where living and always supplying more, not matter how many were killed. Some believed that the more animals you killed, the more would come later on.
Some tribes that today preach for mother earth, actually got their ideas from some of the white people coming from Europe where they had seen what a "poor" over-hunted continent looked liked and tried to stop some of their most destructive habits, especially concerning beaver hunting, with steel traps etc
This doesn't mean that the whites weren't innocent, far from it.. And they loved buffalo tongues, which the indians would gladly supply to them in exchange for liquor, tools, guns, clothes.