Uh...why are you saying this?
Because it should be obvious, unless somebody is ignorant of Indian culture.
Indians did not believe in something we would recognize as a "Nation".
They were tribes, they were clans. They were
families.
To be a nation, you must own the land that nation occupies. And Indians did not comprehend the concept of "owning" land.
You could not own land, it simply was. You could not own the land, no more than you owned a river, or the air, or the deer.
You might walk upon it for a while, but you did not "own" it. It simply was. And somebody else walked upon it before you, and somebody else would walk upon it after you were gone. Another family, another tribe, another clan. It is only strangers that talk about owning something like the land, the Indians did not comprehend such a concept.
And yes, I am proud of my heritage. I am Potawatomi, part of the Council of Three Fires.
Which was founded according to legend by 3 brothers. They compose the Algonquin Family.
In this family of tribes, the Ojibiwa were the "Elder Brother". They were the "Keepers of the Faith". The Ojibawe were the "Middle Brother", the "Keepers of the Trade". And the Potawatomi were the "Younger Brothers", they were the "Keepers of the Fire (Hearth)".
Three tribes (clans), all descended form the same family. Who moved around as needed, only lived where they lived then moving on. They owned nothing that they did not carry on their backs.
So no, they were not a "country", as most people understand the concept. The "country" to them was the people, the land they were on at the moment was meaningless.
To put it in a European perspective, who were the "French"? Are the French a country or nation?
Remember, for thousands of years the Franks (French) were nomads, who wandered around first Central then Western Asia, before they ran into the Romans in what is now the Rhine Valley (Germany). They then moved on to the far reaches of Western Europe, where they finally settled in what is now France.
So ultimately, what is France? The land, or the people that live there?
Myself, I vote the people. Destroy the US and move all of the people to Greenland, and they are still Americans. The land matters not.