*[Cherokee Phoenix](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherokee_Phoenix "en:Cherokee Phoenix") Newspaper front page May 21, 1828.* Pro-[[Andrew Jackson|Jackson]] newspapers touted the president as an advocate of opening new lands for white settlement and moving native inhabitants beyond the boundaries of “American civilization”. In this, Jackson reflected majority opinion: most Americans believed Indians had no place in the white republic. Despite the efforts of many tribes to follow the advice of [[Reading Notes/Thomas Jefferson|President Jefferson]] and emulate the institutions and culture of the United States, animosity toward [[Native Americans|Indians]] ran deep. Jackson had led American soldiers against the [[Creek]] in 1813 and against the [[Seminole]] in 1817, and his reputation and popularity rested largely on his often-stated commitment to remove Indians from states in the South. Democratic politicians and pro-Jackson newspapers portrayed the president as both a defender of the people and as a champion of western expansion.  Popular culture in the first half of the nineteenth century reflected an aversion to Indians that was nearly universal during the Age of Jackson. Jackson capitalized on this racial hatred to gain popular support; keeping this support required him to direct the United States in a policy of  eradicating the Indians from lands adjacent to the existing states, to make way for expanding white civilization. In his first message to Congress as president, Jackson announced that Indian groups living as sovereign entities within states presented a major problem for state sovereignty. This referred directly to the situation in Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama, where the Creek, [[Choctaw]], [[Chickasaw]], Seminole, and [[Cherokee]] tribal lands directly west of white settlements were obstacles to white expansion. These groups were known as the [[Five Civilized Tribes]], because they had largely adopted Anglo-American culture, spoke English, practiced Christianity, and had established a bicameral legislature and courts modeled after those of the states. Some Indians had even become plantation owners, holding African slaves like their white counterparts. Whites especially resented the Cherokee in Georgia, where they hoped to take over the tribe’s rich agricultural lands in the northern part of the state. The impulse to remove the Cherokee only increased when gold was discovered on their territory. Whites insisted the Cherokee and other native peoples could never be good citizens because of their savage ways, although the Cherokee had gone farther than any other Indians in adopting white culture. Cherokee success in assimilating to white culture was of no consequence in an era when whites perceived all Indians as incapable of becoming full citizens of the republic. ---- Next: [[11.5 - Trail of Tears]] Back: [[11.3 - Nullification]]