Were Native Americans colonized or did they immigrate to the US?

Answer 1

If I have to choose one of those options, I would choose that the Native Americans were colonized by the United States. However, I would argue that while the US illegally confiscated the territory that Native Americans occupied, the Native Americans were rarely, if ever, colonized. The US did not want them as citizens and actively fought several wars and committed atrocities to force them off of land that the US government decided would be in its interest to control directly. Native Americans only became "integrated" into the US via the Reservation System, whereby Native Americans received US citizenship and lived on Reservations, but this is fundamentally different than colonization in Latin America, Africa, or Asia where the native populations were actively involved in the European-dominated society.

Answer 2

If I have to choose one of those options, I would choose that the Native Americans were colonized by the United States. However, I would argue that while the US illegally confiscated the territory that Native Americans occupied, the Native Americans were rarely, if ever, colonized. The US did not want them as citizens and actively fought several wars and committed atrocities to force them off of land that the US government decided would be in its interest to control directly. Native Americans only became "integrated" into the US via the Reservation System, whereby Native Americans received US citizenship and lived on Reservations, but this is fundamentally different than colonization in Latin America, Africa, or Asia where the native populations were actively involved in the European-dominated society.