I think the Cherokees might beg to differ there.
I doubt they would. Assimilation was more the rule than the exception in the southern colonies.
You must be thinking of the later Federal expulsion of Cherokee that occurred. There were Cherokee units fighting for the Confederacy, you know. In fact, the last unit to lay down arms was Cherokee.
They were sorely abused with the Trail Of Tears, but southerners had next to nothing to do with it.
If you are referring to the US government initiation of the Trail of Tears you are correct. If you are referring to the civilian population you are incorrect.
Intermarriage with the Cherokee in the South is why my family went from blond to dark hair in a single generation. MANY old southern families have Cherokee, Choctaw or Chickasaw ancestors. You will also find a surprising number of tribes still intact in the South - Seminole, Houma, Coushatta, Choctaw, Cherokee etc. Exceptions can always be found, but there is a distinct difference in how whites and Indians interacted in Canada and the southern US, on one hand, and the northern US, on the other.
A picture is worth a thousand words:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:American_progress.JPG
