The simple answer is that those described as “Native Americans” implies all populations who were present in the Americas when the Europeans arrived during explorations. This population General is referred to as “indigenous peoples” because the use of a term that describes them as American is contradictory in the sense that they do not share the same rights and privileges that Americans do even today.
In terms of history, indigenous peoples in the Americas have been treated poorly universally. The discrimination existed in North America, the many states of Central America, and South America. The oppressive machine that continuously battered indigenous populations in America is metaphorical for all European colonial and explorative interactions with indigenous peoples throughout the Americas. Albeit, many variations occur based on the cultures at play, such as Spanish interactions with the Aztecs and Mayans having different conflicts than Americans did with the Cherokee, but the result is the same.
The Spanish relied heavily on the Encomienda system, which was focused on conversion of “non-Christian” peoples as laborers for the Spanish citizens that owned all the property. Encomienda has “benefits,” if one can really call it that, where labor was rewarded with Christianity and slow assimilation into a largely mixed-race society. Indigenous peoples were treated poorly, working jobs to feed a machine from which they could never reap the benefits. They were stripped of their cultural identities, forced to accept new religious practices under a Christian patronage, and their cultures blended into that of the Spanish as a result. So, clearly, the Spanish did some bad things to the indigenous people of Central and South America too. So, then, there’s a variety of ways to treat people poorly, however, and an example is American dismissiveness of the indigenous peoples in their region of influence.
America likes to pretend they treat “minority” populations with respect to save face and inflate its ego, but at the end of it all there’s clear examples past and present of American disservice to indigenous peoples, even outside their country. Back in the times of Andrew Jackson, when left was right and right was Jackson, the Trail of Tears stands out as a blatant example of discrimination of the indigenous peoples. Approximately 60,000 people were forced from their homes and traveled thousands of miles, on foot, to go to the region Americans identified as “Indian Territory.” They were stripped of their culture, their home, and thus were reduced to a group that meant nothing to a European culture, like the Mayans were by the Spanish. The result is the same, but the method is different. The Americans eliminated the “problem” through separation and the Spanish eliminated it by assimilation. Both result in people hurt, dead, and mistreated.
This continues today too, an example being American influence in Central and South America to feed its consumption economy. My favorite example because it’s so ridiculous is the banana. Americans has a phallic obsession associated with bananas that has brought the creation of Banana Republics since the late nineteenth century. So, to ensure America is never without banana supplies, American companies established themselves in regions where bananas can grow... Central America... with no regard for regulation or rights for the populations that would become their employees, the indigenous peoples of the region. Under the pretense that American economy interacting with the local economy, many local governments had hope that they could grow into powerful states like America. The lack of regulations and the racial bias that America had toward those populations meant that hope would never com to fruition, and hasn’t to this day. Americans still have unlimited bananas and the poor, indigenous populations of Central America still struggle. Also, it’s important to mention the process of banana production too. A single plantation can grow one crop of the fruit before needing to be cut down, burned, and replanted. That process takes a long time and without more space to circulated through, American banana companies began buying up land to make bananas. Well, with all that land being used by American companies, the indigenous peoples had no land to grow their own industries so they had to work in the poor conditions of the American companies. That’s systemic racism and classism for you.
Ultimately, yes, Europeans treated everyone who was not European poorly and that Eurocentrism still exists even today. There’s a lot of reasons for it, there’s some really bad things that have come from it, but nonetheless it is real and it is historical regardless of cultural boundaries. Indigenous peoples in Central and South America have been and are still treated poorly by the powers at be. These are but a few of hundreds of examples as to what discriminations occurred for indigenous peoples, but the fact of the matter is that it hasn’t stopped yet.
Stay informed, keep seeking answers, and do good for the world and everyone in it.
This thread goes into detail about how the indigenous peoples of Canada were treated before the conquest of New France, under British rule, after the American Revolution and how its aftermath impacts Crown-indigenous relations today: