America was a land occupied by American Indians before the arrival of Europeans to which these two very different cultures clashed repeatedly with the ultimate and clear victor being the Americans from Europe which would in the process later create the colonies and a new Constitutional government which we know today as the United States of America. Unfortunately, for the American Indians, they were over a period of time, quickly outnumbered, outmaneuvered, hoodwinked, divided, outgunned in war, denied true justice, and forced off of their traditional tribal lands, irrespective of whether they had legal rights to that land or not.
The American Indians were no match for the machinations of the American government, to which the American Indians believed that given their precarious position, that bargaining with the white man was their best choice, and therefore they signed numerous treaties with the United States government, all to little or no avail. A treaty, by definition, is an agreement between two or more parties with specific terms and conditions to be followed by both and with specified penalties for any violations of such. What the American Indians did not realize was that their signatures to treaties, really didn't mean much in practicality, as the American government, unilaterally re-interpreted, broke, amended and subverted treaty after treaty with the American Indians so as to achieve their desired aims, which was to push virtually all Indians off of virtually all lands east of the Mississippi and to displace them to the unsettled west, by force, if necessary.
In effect, the American government vacated every treaty with the American Indians and/or interpreted such so as to favor whatever that the American government wanted in actual results. This meant, effectively, that the American Indians were treated as wards of the State, which continues to this very day, and that the American government was the sole determinant of what the American Indian would or would not receive, own, or have on any given day. The overarching objective of the American government was to displace the American Indians onto worthless land, from every single perspective of the word: worthlessness, and to have nary a concern about American Indians and their traditions, their ways, and their tribal territories. To make matters even worse for the American Indian, if it was later discovered that the land that they occupied had some worth, such as minerals, strategic or other, no matter the terms of said treaty, the American Indians would be moved again.
The upshot of the American government's treatment of American Indians and the treaties of such, was that in effect, the treaties were just a means to sell the illusion of fairness and justice to the American Indians and to a lesser extent the American public, while in actuality, the purpose was to marginalize and to neutralize the American Indian in such a manner, that it looked somewhat civil in its effects, while being incredibly devastating and potent in its design.
While the American government can be proud of its conquering and the submission of the American Indian, it did so in the most underhanded and deceitful way possible. There is no honor in unilaterally violating a treaty made in good faith, nor is there any honor in not keeping your word.