Comment: 16 million American Indians in the lower 48? You claim that number as if its fact. I just did a little reading about and fact is nobody really knows how many there were. But if you want to accept that number then good for you.

Extermination? Genocide? How about an easier one... war, because that is what it was. Violent war for land, fought in many places on many fronts over many years, with winners and losers.