My info on this is the book The Myth of the Noble
Savage by Terry Jay Ellingson.  Ellingson's thesis is in part to disprove

the notion that the "noble savage" concept originated with Rousseau.
  Theola Walden Baker <[log in to unmask]> wrote:----- Original Message -----
 > An interesting note on the term "noble savage"; the word "noble refers to
a class or caste of people rather than a character trait; early European
explorers noted that all Native American men engaged in hunting, a practice
which in Europe was reserved for the nobility -- hence within the tribe,
every man was a noble.

Interesting take, to be sure, and accurate insofar as hunting being the
privilege of European nobility, but the concept of the "noble savage"
originated with the French Romantic Jean-Jacques Rousseau in the 1762 novel
Émile.

The "noble savage" is an "idealized human prototype, inherently good in a
state of nature before being corrupted by 'civilization.'" (Brewer's
Dictionary of
Phrase & Fable, 1999)

HTH,
Theola