An entire book could probably be written about this subject-- but we're going to restrain ourselves and just talk about a few of the things we wish Americans knew about Indins:
        ...that until the mid-1800's the word "americans" was used to describe Indigenous Peoples and not European immigrants or their descendants...that there were over 500 totally different Nations on this continent with anywhere between 70 to 100 million inhabitants (more than in Europe) before the arrival of Columbus... that one of the longest continually operating democracies is still that of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy(1000 years), not the US Republic(227 years)... that the first book extolling the virtues of New World Indigenous culture and government in Europe was written in the 1500's... that the largest pandemics of disease in the history of mankind occurred on the North American continent between 1500 and 1700, sweeping north and south from ocean to ocean with a 90-95% fatality rate, and continuing until the late 1800's...that agriculturally, Indigenous Americans were light years ahead of Europe with entire continents of carefully managed agricultural acreages... that four-fifths of the worlds current vegetable staples were exported from the America's, including corn, potatoes, tomatoes, etc.... that Christopher Columbus was probably preceded by a number of different peoples from other continents, notably Africans, Phoenicians, Norsemen, and possibly many more... that he found a million Arawaks on Hispanola and originally described them as beautiful, gentle, and generous people--however within 30 years he was describing the 200 survivors as savage, murderous, and ugly... that hundreds of thousands of Indins were taken as slaves to Europe and other locations and that the idea for the Black slave trade was proven profitable and possible by those practices... that the Thanksgiving Gathering never took place as such, but was a treaty parley where a prayer was said thanking God for saving the Pilgrims from the "ravages of the savages" even though these were the same "savages" who had only recently rescued them from starvation... that Indins were mostly matriarchal societies, where the women had as much (or more) to say about the socio-political affairs of the People than the men... that Indin personal habits of cleanliness and knowledge of medicine were considerably advanced compared to Europeans, who considered bathing dangerous and had little to no knowledge of herbology... that Indins lived at least as long and quite possibly significantly longer than their European counterparts and that there was plenty of leisure time in Indigenous cultures to devote to spirituality, culture, art, music, dance and entertainment... that Indigenous civilizations before the coming of pestilence had raised cities larger than the greatest cities of Europe (the Mayan lowlands held between 11 to 18 million people in that one region and that their peoples had great artisans, architects and impressive astronomers with advanced mathematical knowledge, including pi 3.14, as well as cities with from thirty thousand to three hundred thousand citizens enjoying linens and cloth clothing, sewers, running water, and markets where vegetables imported from a thousand miles away... that a similar civilization existed from the Mississippi to the Atlantic, from the Gulf Of Mexico to the Great Lakes with cities holding from 30,000 to 50,000 citizens... that North and South America were never vacant wild lands until after European diseases destroyed most of their Indigenous populations...that if not for the huge influx of new agricultural products (which eased a starving continent) and massive stolen wealth from the "new world" (particulary silver, which revolutionized the economic structures and revitalized euro-national economies) Europe would never have been able to colonize the americas ...that American indigenous people did not develop the wheel because there were no beasts of burden in the New World capable of drawing them... that Ben Franklin's first proposal of government to the Colonies, the Albany Plan Of Union, was strictly based on the Haudenosaunee government--and the subsequent Constitutional Convention closely considered those structures...  that the US never honored a single treaty with Indigenous Nations while the Constitutional Congress vigorously complained to England that there was no excuse for treaties between Sovereign Nations to be ignored, become obsolete, or be arbitrarily abrogated... that more American Indians per capita have volunteered in every American military conflict since World War One (before Indins were legally declared US Citizens)... that if not for the Code-talkers--Choctaw, Comanche, Navajo and many others--America could have lost World War One or Two (even though those same Code-talkers had been raised in boarding schools that denied them the right to speak the languages that eventually became America's most important weapons)... that Indins still have the highest rates of infant mortality, rural poverty, and suicide in the US... that the average lifespan of a Native man in 2002 was 54.5 years... that most contemporary Indins don't wear feathers or live in tipis on a daily basis... that most of the government monies that go to Indins are not taxpayer monies but the result of land or resource leases, treaty settlements or trust agreements... that any sovereignty and rights allowed to Tribes that seem to give Natives an advantage or different status over other Americans by the US Government are a product of constitutionally guaranteed treaties or good faith negotiations executed under the Constitution of the United States and not by any arbitrary state or federal decision... and finally that, to this day the U.S Government has never had a consistent legal policy recognizing and restoring the rights of Native Nations under the constitutionally guaranteed provisions of treaties and agreements negotiated in good faith by their ancestors, even though many of those treaties were signed with the famous guarantee--"as long as grass grows and waters flow".