Based on what I've read online and off they did have some tribal warfare or internecine conflict among the inhabitants
of this island.
The winners resorted to cannibalism in order to avoid starvation.
Also unlike today Easter Island did have forests or vegetation.
But what happened was that the islanders cut down most
of the trees to use as rollers.
For transporting their massive statues to their present location.
This is one of the few examples to show clearly that even
some primitive people were just as destructive to their environment as we have been.
As for the origins of these natives, the general accepted theory is that they came originally from Polynesia.
Previously some had thought they had come from nearby South America.
The island itself is a territory of Chile.
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