Removal efforts were centered on the so-called “Five Civilized Tribes," the Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw and Seminole. They were regarded as “civilized" in that they had adopted many white ways. The Cherokee in Georgia, for example, had received recognition of their semiautonomous status in a federal treaty in 1791. They had given up their semi-nomadic way and become farmers, ranchers, and cotton producers. They developed their own constitution, built roads and churches, developed a successful educational system, and owned slaves. The Cherokee refused all inducements to sell their highly prized and fertile lands.
