You won't run out of volunteers in the case of a real threat, Doug, only in the case of a spurious one.

Native Americans normally fought on a volunteer basis only. Leaders had to convince the warriors, through skillful oratory, that fighting was a good idea, and this had to be done before each battle was fought...they could not order their men to go and fight. That's freedom. That is grass roots democracy. If the rank and file of Indian warriors lost confidence in a war, they simply turned around and went home (as much of the Imperial Russian Army did in 1917), and their leader was finished, his prestige destroyed. *(But if they were attacked at home...everyone fought back! Better believe it. Women and children included.)

Despite these freedoms (or more likely because of them) the Indians fought extremely well, although they usually lacked sufficient modern firearms and ammunition, not to mention heavier weapons like artillery.

It was their lack of industrial technology and their vulnerability to new diseases which defeated them, not their lack of fighting ability.

A civilization based on money, rigidly established hierarchical power, and procedural coercion at every level of life has difficulty understanding such a concept of freedom, and its people are more akin to sheep than to free human beings. Thus, they are drafted in time of war and sent off under someone else's control to the slaughter.

- LH