Thomas Jefferson thought of the Indian as the "natural man" admired 
by eighteenth-century philosophers, the noble savage who, if 
completely civilized, was equal to the white man in all respects. 
Jefferson felt strongly that Indians could and should learn the ways 
of Europeans as quickly as possible. However, Indians proved more 
difficult to assimilate into white, Western culture than Jefferson 
believed. Most efforts failed, and Jefferson's high ideals and rhetoric 
were undercut by the practical issues of American expansion in the 
West. Jefferson then concentrated on land acquisitions, most notably 
the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Rather than educational programs, 
treaties, like the one shown here, signed in 1806, and relocation 
orders, intended to secure land for white settlement, became the 
prime methodology of government policy toward the Indians.