They (the colonials) didn't just ignore the nations, they actively tried to erase the past to prove that they were taking over a mostly empty land.

I understand!

The Apache and Comanche were at least semi-nomadic while the Navajo mostly lived in permanent buildings made of wood, stone or adobe. All three fought courageous battles against a vastly superior force and lost. The Navajos accepted the offered treaty and honored it completely. The Apache and Comanche both had splinter groups that carried the fight on long after the main tribe surrendered to the reservations.

The only purely nomadic tribes came out of the great plains. Once they got horses (by about 1550) it was a life style they embraced and lived.

It is peculiar that nomads were created among the Indians when the Spaniards brought horses to North America.
It is surprising that the Indians originally had no horses, but later had such excellent riding skills that even whites admired them.

However, from my point of view, I guessed that the three tribes of the Comanche, Apache, and Navajo did not form a unified state because they spoke different languages.
Perhaps because they failed to create letters, they were absorbed into the white people's civilization.

Speaking of horses, two Spanish explorations found the Mississippian Culture, even though it was breaking up at the time. Both expeditions suffered big losses (and turned loose horses and donkeys) DeSoto died on his trip and his very few survivors rafted to the Gulf of Mexico to escape. Not much history written about that.

DeSoto is revered by Americans as the first hero to explore Mississippi.
Although he had committed massacres and looting, he had courage nonetheless.

East Asians like me, looking at the Aztec Empire in Mexico and the Inca Empire in Peru, are amazed that the Indians in North America failed to build an empire.
So, I presumed that the difference between Central and South America, where mostly mestizo is the predominant ethnic group, whereas North America, where whites are the dominant ethnic group, is because the Indians in North America failed to build an empire.

I am very surprised and intrigued by the completely opposite realities of North and South America.
Many East Asians are curious about the fact and why North America is more peaceful and developed than South America.

Thank you for your history lesson!