The British did that during the War of 1812 by allying with Tecumseh's confederation which ended in failure.
Well, during the Trent affair (If it goes hot)? Or a US- French war over Mexican occuoation ? Maybe French try to anticipate insurgencies ?In colonial times you actually did have European powers French/British etc use the natives to wage their colonial fights. What if post ARW you had certain European powers providing the natives with arms and certain funding's in an attempt to keep the US down.
It goes back further than that, doesn't it? The British, French, and Spanish pitted their native allies against each other again and again.