At the beginning of the 1830s, nearly _______ Native Americans lived on millions of acres of land in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina and Florida. Their ancestors had occupied and _______ this land for generations, but by the end of the decade, very few Native Americans remained anywhere in the southeastern United States.
White Americans often feared and _______ the Native Americans: to them, Native Americans were unfamiliar people who occupied land that white settlers wanted. But the Native Americans’ land was valuable, and it grew to be more _______ as white settlers flooded the region. Many of these whites yearned to make their fortunes by growing cotton, and often resorted to violent means to take land from their Native neighbors. They stole livestock; burned and looted houses and towns; and even committed mass murder.
