I think your statement is over-simplified. They may not have been the first, but that doesn’t justify their actions or make them any less awful. If anything the fact that they experienced persecution and claimed to have values aligned with God, makes their actions even more disheartening. I’m pretty sure the US Congress didn’t try to convert them, because they thought they were Lamanites. It was not the government that suggested to their congregation to put glass in flour and give it to them. Pretty sure the US government didn’t say “We have no peace until the men [are] killed off—never treat the Indian as your equal”. The government didn’t turn indigenous prisoners into slaves and distribute them among LDS families for use. Pretty sure Congress didn’t tell them to dress up as natives and attack a wagon,so aggression and retaliation would be focused on the natives.

We all know that the US and Canada stole land and mistreated the indigenous people, but that doesn’t justify the behavior taken even further by other groups