I know that the old worlders tried to put the Native Americans to work when they arrived on the continent

Holy euphemism, Batman! Europeans did not "try to put the Native Americans to work" any more than they "tried to put Africans to work." What you are talking about is slavery. Europeans enslaved Native Americans, just as they enslaved Africans.

but the diseases killed them off too fast.

It wasn't disease alone that killed off Native American populations. /u/Anthropology_nerd has written extensively on the topic of the myth of "90 percent mortality due to disease". This post in particular ties together how a system of slave raiding that developed in the American Southeast set up the conditions for an outbreak of Smallpox.

I'd highly recommend looking at Anthropology_nerd's flair profile and particularly looking at their recommended book list, which lists several books dealing with the Native American slave trade.