system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Why were Native Americans so much further behind in terms of progression and technology?

What were the main factors? Was it cultural, climate related, or some other reason?
gpt
Native americans followed a completely independent historical trajectory from the rest of the world, given the geographic isolation. If you view cultural adaptations as goal oriented (i.e. the goal should be western civilization) then yes, everyone in the americas failed. But this is more because of the different historical trajectory they followed, and no (modern) anthropologist would frame this issue in that way. 

The way native americans lived was perfectly suited to where they lived, and they have been immensely successful.

Given that the inhabitants of the americas independently invented or used metallurgy, writing, states, domesticated crops (and animals), monumental architecture, city planning, mass production of goods, long distance trading networks, political alliances, production of exquisite pieces of art, massive irrigation canals and sustainable farming practices (and thats all relatively recently. They occupied much of the content in almost a blink of an eye, and figured out ways to survive in just about every kind of environment imaginable thousands of years ago), I'd say they were doing quite well for themselves. inuit cold weather gear was studied by NASA when they were first designing space suits. 

If your question was focusing more on native north americans, there is still massive variation in the kinds of cultures that made their way in the region, from chiefdoms (hopewell) to smaller bands of hunter gatherers (athapaskans).