There were actually significant differences in the way that the French, English, and Spanish dealt with Native Americans. These differences had a lot to do with their goals for colonization and use of resources in the Americas.

The Spanish sought to enrich their nation with the resources of the Americas. They had a policy of enslaving the native peoples and forcing them to do dangerous and backbreaking tasks such as mining for precious metals and farming cash-crops. They also sought to bring as many native peoples into the Catholic faith as possible. Consequently, they established missions all over their American empire and forcefully converted many Native Americans.

The French also looked to enrich themselves with the resources of the Americas. However, they did not take as heavy-handed an approach to dealing with Native Americans as the Spanish did. Rather than enslaving them, the French formed trade alliances with many tribes. There were never many French colonists in North America, so direct conquest was never really an option. The French would often take advantage of rivalries between different tribes to negotiate favorable trade deals, usually for furs and pelts. A number of French missionaries did convert a significant amount of Hurons to Christianity, but never on the same scale as the Spanish.

The English had a very different approach to dealing with Native Americans. They sought to displace them, not exploit them. The English wanted to keep the native peoples, who they viewed as inferior, as separate from them as possible. In the early years of English colonialism in the New World, there were a number of violent conflicts between different tribes and English colonists who wanted their land. This, coupled with deadly epidemics, led to a decimation of the native population.