Assimilation and removal were the two competing approaches white colonizers took towards Native Americans. Both are rooted in the common assumption that Native American culture was backwards and destined to disappear in the face of superior European civilization. Assimilation supposed that Native Americans could be "civilized"; that is, they could adopt the trappings of white culture and become integrated in modern society. Removal dispensed with such niceties: the "Indians" had to be erased in order to make way for white settlers (and white civilization). The end result was the genocide of Native American tribes; the "Trail of Tears" is the most famous historical example in the U.S. It must be said, however, that while assimilation did not involve physical genocide, it presupposed the erasure of Native American culture, and thus constituted a form of cultural genocide.
