The United States has not had an unblemished history when dealing with immigrants (willing or the unwilling slaves) or with other groups of people who were "different". Think of the Chinese Exclusion Act and Executive Order 9006 creating the Japanese Relocation Camps. Not long ago, we were shocked that the United States was separating children from their illegal immigrant parents.

What happened when Europeans were the immigrants? Believing in manifest destiny, they marched across the country, taking the land for themselves.  They killed bison and bears and Indians for sport. (Between 1847 and 1865 American hunters killed 4,267 Indians for sport in California alone.) Native American children were sent, often forcibly, to boarding schools with the goal of assimilation. Their native languages, clothing, and customs were forbidden to them. Interestingly, the first Indian boarding school was established in 1860 on the Yakima Indian Reservation. We would like to think that we are better than that now.

Read more:

An indigenous peoples' history of the United States / Dunbar-Ortiz, Roxanne, 970.004 DUN

The heartbeat of Wounded Knee : native America from 1890 to the present / Treuer, David, 970.004 TRE

Wounded Knee /Waldman, Neil,  J 973.8 WAL

The earth is weeping : the epic story of the Indian wars for the American West / Cozzens, Peter, 978.02 COZ

Native American almanac : more than 50,000 years of the cultures and histories of indigenous peoples /           Dennis, Yvonne Wakim, 970.004 DEN 

Dictionary of North American Indians and other indigenous peoples / Legay, Gilbert. 970.004 LEG 

North American Indian / Murdoch, David Hamilton,   J 930.1 MUR

The portable North American Indian reader / Turner, Frederick W., 810.8 TUR

Quanah Parker / Zemlicka, Shannon.   J B PAR

Chief Joseph, leader of destiny / Jassem, Kate.   J B JOS