The Five Civilized Tribes
Cherokee Alphabet, 3 Oct. 2011,
Primary Source Nexus. (click to enlarge)
"A mild climate, a fertile soil, an inviting and extensive country, a Government of your own adequate protection against other Indians and against our own citizens, pecuniary means amply sufficient for your removal, subsistence and comfortable establishment, and for such purposes of general concern, expectation, are freely offered to you."
-Lewis Cass, Secretary of War 
Cherokee Phoenix Newspaper, n.d., University of Michigan
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The Five Civilized Tribes of the Southeastern United States consisted of the Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw, and Seminole who adopted American culture. The Cherokee were the first to adopt a written language, newspaper, and constitution. Many farmed. With fertile soil, discovery of gold in Georgia, and feelings of racial superiority, white settlers wanted their territory. Federal and state governments began discussing legislation to remove tribes from their homelands.
"The Cherokees have been reclaimed from their wild habits-Instead of wild hunters they have become the cultivators of the soil-Instead of wild and ferocious savages, thirsting for blood , they have become the mild "citizens," the friends and brothers of the white man- Instead of the superstitious heathens, many of them have become the worshipers of the true God." - Elias Boudinot, Cherokee
Tribes territory before removal, Sept. 2010,
National Humanities Center
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