With all the natural resources and the great climate in the Eastern US, why didn't the Indians develop food production as early as other...

The answer to this can be found in Chapter 8, page 152 in
the paperback edition.  There, Diamond explains that the climate of the Eastern US was
not enough to make up for the lack of really good resources there.  Your question states
that there were natural resources, but those resources were not really enough to make
food production as easy as in places like the Fertile
Crescent.

Diamond specifies a number of problems with the
Eastern US:

• Its wild creeals were not as useful
  (smaller seeds, harder to cultivate) than wheat or
  barley.


• It had no
  pulses.


• It had no fiber
  crops.


• It had no fruit or nut trees that were
  usable.


• The only domesticable animals were
  dogs.

Because of thse shortcomings, the Native
Americans were unable to develop food production as early as people in other places
did.