This is somewhat of a Noble native fallacy. Native American culture was diverse and a mixed bag. Some exercised extreme territorial claims and had very hierarchical societies. Some practice slavery and cannibalism.
I'm trying to point out the deeper currents that underlie the stuff the article is talking about. They touch on it but they don't cut to the bone.
I don't have time this morning to go into detail but the main points are:
1) The essence of state power is the ability of the king to command others to die for the state (often even before they reproduced!), this is almost entirely absent in Native American cultures. (At least in the ones we know about.) The Native view was that Europeans were not really free: they had to obey their kings.
2) There really was a serious problem with people preferring Native cultures to European cultures in the New World. Harsh measures were enacted.
3) Natives did not spontaneously adopt European cultures. Again, harsh measures were enacted.
4) Last but hardly least, Native cultures were integrated with ecological systems much more efficiently than European cultures. (This was almost certainly a major reason why Native life was generally more fun and easy than European life.)
In sum, the reasons why we are messed up in the heads about camping today go back pretty far, and tie in pretty deeply with the structure of our culture and society.
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I can't help but add that I believe there is a way to fashion a new kind of society that fuses elements of Eastern, Western, and Native American cultures with modern science and particularly ecology to, uh, make a really fun and easy way to live, but that's a whole 'nother story and it's a sunny Sunday morning, so it'll have to wait.