Cherokee tribes led the way in adopting American traditions and ideals. They created their own schools and drafted a constitution. Some Cherokees became farmers and slave owners. When they felt they had been wronged or exploited, they filed lawsuits in court and sought justice as Americans would. Surely all these things prove that being a Native American Indian does not automatically make someone a “savage.” Classifying the natives as savages made it easier for Jackson to justify their expulsion. If he had recognized them as equal citizens he would not have been able to distance them from theirs