Native Americans are not one nation, but many unique nations. These nations were, in many cases, not united under a single leadership, and their leadership was

Native Americans are not one nation, but many unique nations. These nations were, in many cases, not united under a single leadership, and their leadership was sometimes matriarchal. Diplomacy with one group would not always extend to other groups, and in some cases diplomacy was conducted with the wrong individual, especially when tribes were matriarchal. These situations made settlers confused and make them wrongly think that diplomacy was futile, as you seem to wrongly suggest.