America's colonial era and the natives

      America's colonial era began when the pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock--we commemorate their survival every Thanksgiving.  The colonial era continued until America became a nation in 1776. After 1776, America's history is the history of the republic. Many settlers came to America during its colonial era, not only from England, but from other parts of Europe. Some made friends with the natives they found here in America ( called American Indians or Native Americans )--the story of one such friendship is part of the Thanksgiving story.  The colonists also fought with some of the natives they found here, but the wars they fought were local and limited in extent. The great campaigns of removal and extermination came later, when America was an independent nation.
     America never ruled over a body of natives. The Americans made treaties with the Indians, and until the 19th century Americans and Indians lived very separate lives. As long as there was still territory to which the Indians could remove or be removed, that was how any conflicts were settled. The Indians were, and for some purposes still are, considered independent nations. Their relationship with the federal (national) government was by treaty. Indians were not counted in the census, and did not become citizens of the United States until 1925. Some of the treaties signed by our government are still in effect, and the Indian tribes still have title to the lands described in them.
    The settlement of the American West ( from the middle of the 19th century, or 1800's ) left very little territory for the Indians, and a campaign of extermination or confinement to reservations began. Its motto, to many, was "the only good Indian is a dead Indian". Indians confined to a reservation became dependent on the government for food and supplies, which were often insufficient. They would leave the reservation to hunt, and would be hunted themselves unless they returned. Forcible confinement to a reservation continued into the 1970's. An Indian who left the reservation could be hunted as a felon by law enforcement officials.
     American history books do not use the term "genocide" to refer to the campaign to exterminate the Indians, but other history books sometimes do, and with reason. There are very few Indians left alive today, and most of their cultures and languages are extinct.