Using a broad brush to paint all Native Americans for the practice of one or two isolated tribes is very innacurate... they were not all one nation with a uniform culture but rather hundreds of nations with distinct cultures, languages, customs and differing religions -for example, ditching the elderly was not a widespread practice but an uncommon one usually found only in groups living in marginal territory under extreme conditions but seldom if ever among agrarian tribes... slavery was practiced by some tribes, some brutally, some with the ultimate aim of adoption to replace lost loved ones, and some never practiced slave-taking at all... some had egalitarian cultures while others had all-powerful unquestioned overlords... some were barbaric and some civil. In the eyes of some of the eastern tribes, the settler’s treatment of their own children was considered cruel and abusive. One southern chieftain who had been taken to visit Europe with the aim of awing and impressing him was asked about his thoughts on the royalty he met- he remarked that he was impressed by what he saw but noted that the European women smelled like alligators.
Being of of Asian descent they had no tolerance of alcohol. I worked with many Asians and had this confirmed. Their alcoholism was a sad demise.
My mother was from Phoenix and she remembers groups of Indian men gathering together on street corners, for example, squatting on their booted toes, talking, drinking and socializing for hours.
And, being "indigenous" people they got hand outs, never worked, often never left the reservation...and never melted into America's great melting pot.
Many still live in reservations. Every county in Arizona has the name of a tribe. The sooner they leave the reservation and join the USA the better off they are...usually.
We used to visit my grandparents in Arizona and would visit the tribes. They are heavy into the tourism thing now and that's good for them. They, of course, have their go-getters like everyone else and those men and women succeed in modern America.
Whatever proud past they had they didn't do well in this country when conquered by the bigger stick. They didn't even have horses until the Spaniards brought them to the New World in the late 16th century. Theirs was not an easy life.
But, I guess all their problems and ALL the blame is with the bad ole white man. Not their fault. Right?
I used to teach in an urban college and I had an Indian young woman as a student. I recognized her as being Indian and she was delighted. We became better acquainted. I ended up giving her ALL my silver jewelry. I had bought it all in Mexico. I started wearing nothing but gold when we returned from the middle east...and thus never wore my silver jewelry.
Occasionally I still run into her.