First: I am aware that Native American tribes in general were peaceful and there is in general an extreme lack of violence among them compared to histories of say, Europe or Asia.
That said, I am curious about the exceptions to this historical rule. Are there any common features shared among aggressive tribes there were not shared by peaceful ones? For what reasons might one tribe fight another. Did Native Americans at any time go to war among one another as we commonly understand (Gathering an army, invading territory, etc) or did it tend more take the form of territorial skirmishing?
For scope i'm more wondering more about the peoples who inhabited North America rather than Central and South.
Here is a post that recently came up on this subject.
It is probably mythological that Native American tribes were in general peaceful. In North America, they were likely just as war-like as people anywhere else.
We don't have written records of warfare in North America before European contact, but we do have evidence.
The Native Mississippian culture in Eastern North America, for example, made extensive use of palisade fortifications around their settlements. People living in peace usually do not fortify their towns and cities.
In 1541, French explorer Cartier founded a short lived (one year) colony on the St. Lawrence. 67 years later, Champlain founded the colony at Quebec.
Champlain found that the Native Americans who had lived in the region when Cartier was there were there no longer. They had been driven out by warfare with the Iroquois Confederacy. Indicating again that warfare occurred between Native Americans before European contact (or before much contact).
Many books have been written on ritualized Maya warfare. Beginning in the classic era, Maya societies began waging war based on the positions of the planet Venus (Foster 262). (BTW Mesoamerica is part of North America).
For many tribes in what is now the US, warfare was often seasonal; something men did in the summer, often traveling great distances to continue ongoing skirmishes against rival tribes.
Ball-headed clubs were popular precontact weapons in the Eastern Woodlands into Canada. They incorporated the incredibly strong burls of trees in the ball. Stone clubs with wooden bases were popular striking weapons as well. People fought over territory, to avenge wrongs, and settle disputes.
Violent games such as stickball/lacrosse were known as the "Little Brother of War", since the game could be used as a substitute for warfare to settle disputes between communities.