Truth; millions of native americans were wiped indirectly out from the initial burst of Columbus' escapades and what followed down south. Rampant sickness and ecological devastation spread up the East Coast like wildfire due to Spanish presence in Florida, in particular.

The result was that when the English began to settle in New England they were in effect inhabiting the ruins of a once prosperous and expansive society of people. I mean consider the spread of the Black Death: what served as a vector in its epidemic were rodent populations stowed on ships that were conducting trade. It follows then that in order for disease to spread so thoroughly across North America there must have been extensive trade lines or at a bare minimum interactions between all different kinds of civilizations.