Most native nations fought with the British who promised to protect them from the colonists taking native land. The powerful Iroquois confederacy supported the British and was destroyed as a result by U.S. Soldiers. Another nation, the Cherokee, were also attacked for helping the British and their lands and homes were burnt to the ground.
More importantly, perhaps, when the British gave up their lands in America there was no mention of the land owned by natives. The new USA claimed it all as their own and refused to recognise natives as independent people. This started the gradual expansion of the USA from East to west coast.
As US settlers moved west Native Americans were killed and herded from their own land onto crowded reservations where, because of poor land, they often starved. Many native nations were used as slaves and were killed in huge numbers. The Yuki nation of California went from numbering 3,500 before 1849 to under 100 in less than 50 years.
Colonists: Europeans who moved to North America to live
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