What had begun as a policy of Thomas Jefferson's administration in the first
decade of the 19th Century to support Protestant missionary work in
Christianizing the eastern tribes and
teaching them to be farmers, evolved into something quite different
as the nation's westward expansion gathered momentum after the War of 1812.
>> The Cherokee tribe, whose villages and
hunting lands were in the Appalachian mountains of Georgia,
the two Carolinas and Tennessee acceded to the government's plan for assimilation.
The tribe cooperated with missionary and
federal efforts to build a total of eight boarding schools in the region.
Here youngsters were taught reading, agricultural practices and domestic arts.
English was the language of instruction and
a Lancasterian monitorial system was used.