As much as I love a lot of things about Hacker News, most users here have never discussed the indigenous histories of the Americas, so remain ignorant as to how to express themselves in such discussions.
To be clear, you should not be downvoted.
And to others oblivious as to why "peopled" is wrong: To people is frowned upon when discussing early histories of the Americas because it connotes that before the arrival of Europeans, aboriginals were not people and there was a lot of "empty space."
There were plenty of people in the Americas. The vast genocides across all of the Americas by the hand of European governments were due to a culture clash and the European immigrant's need for hegemonic power.
After the deaths of most indigenous population, Europeans used rhetoric to convince people that "vast, empty" lands needed to be "peopled." Genocide was used to replace native tribes with European immigrants.
A lot of the lands that were already rich in resources and on their way to healthy growth (prospering) did not need to be "peopled" by European immigrants.
Yes, if you know all this information and still use "peopled," you should be ashamed of yourself.
Here is a map of all the tribes in just North America:
PDF file: http://www.tribalnationsmaps.com/uploads/1/0/4/5/10451178/pi...
Other maps: http://www.tribalnationsmaps.com/store/c1/Featured_Products....
NPR article: https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/06/24/323665644...
Site of the maker of these maps: http://www.tribalnationsmaps.com