Most ‘invasions’ were the product of displacement—like that from the Black Hills which would “belong to the Sioux until the sun no longer rises in the East”,
And if Custer had won a the Battle of the Little Big Horn, and died in his bed in the 1920s, would he or the battle even be remembered today?
He had hanged enough young men in the Carolinas to be remembered, just not well.
On occasion, it is politically expedient to 'make heroes' out of screw-ups to save face, but likely that was done by the sensationalist media of the day (Harper's comes to mind). With control over perception, the mob is easily manipulated, and those 'back East' were no different then than today.
'Manifest Destiny' and all that, ya know.