Apparently, there is an *ongoing* discussion (like today) of whether Native Americans were "cannibals" and that it was "proven" so. Here are some resources to dispel that myth, since it was used for centuries to steal our land and enslave us. We have receipts:

1. Jáuregui, Carlos A. 2008. Canibalia: Canibalismo, calibanismo, antropofagia cultural y consumo en América Latina. Madrid: Iberoamericana/Vervuert. (Literally a 500 page academic monograph on the subject, dispelling the myth)

2. Davies, Surekha. 2016. Renaissance Ethnography and the Invention of the Human: New Worlds, Maps and Monsters. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (A brilliant analysis of how the 'human' was invented in contrast with monsters and 'cannibals' portrayed on European maps)

3. Braham, Persephone. 2015. From Amazons to Zombies: Monsters in Latin America. Lanham, MD: Bucknell University Press. (An accessible and super generative study of how monstrosity--including the cannibal--was a trope used by European colonizers because they were idiots).

4. Moraña, Mabel. 2017. El monstruo como máquina de guerra. Madrid: Iberoamericana/Vervuert. (Again, an entire academic monograph on the monstern (including the figure of the cannibal)--from one of Latin Americas preeminent cultural studies scholars).

In short: cannibalism was used as an excuse by Spanish colonizers to enslave Caribs (which is where the term Caribbean comes from) because they wanted to circumvent Spanish laws prohibiting slavery and theft of land.

So Spaniards accused "Caribs" in the 16th century, of cannibalism, and so the Caribbean became known as the place of cannibals. And by accusing Indians of cannibalism, they de-humanized them, literally--a cannibal was not human--so they could steal our land. #receipts

And for good measure, here is one of those famous Theodor De Bry engravings depicting...oh wait...what is that...white people!?!? eating other white people!?!? Indeed, this is the failed founding of Buenos Aires in 1541.

And an accessible article from the Smithsonian. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/europes-hypocritical-history-of-cannibalism-42642371/

I should add: It doesn't matter who did or didn't eat who, but what that eating meant to the particular community. Some Indigenous Peoples did eat other humans, but the concept of "cannibalism" is an imposition from Europe meant to kill us and steal our land.