Of course they can. My current Nord is lvl 46, archery skill is 94. You just have to shoot arrows into foes from the sneak mode for max impact. With my ebony bow firing dwarven or ebony arrows (cannot remember which), on a quest to kill a giant, I killed the giant with one shot. You just have to raise that skill when you level up.
Now, before you wonder how I am this high, I am only putting perk points in smithing, heavy armor, one-handed, archery, and block. I have 3 perk points in sneak, just to get the 6x multiplier as well.