Many did so. The classic example here are the Cherokees who, prior to Indian Removal, went the furthest in westernizing their society. The Cherokee Nation had established formal borders with the United States in the Treaty of Tellico in 1790. By the time of Trail of Tears, they had their own written language, a bilingual national newspaper, and higher literacy rates than the Euroamericans around them. They had their own constitution, providing for an executive branch headed by the Principle Chief, a legislative branch in the form of the National Council, and a judicial branch in the form of the Cherokee Supreme Court. They had adopted many aspects of the Euroamerican agriculture, adding Eurasian crops to their fields, raising livestock, and - unfortunately - purchasing slaves.

By the 1830s, the Creek Confederacy and the Choctaw were following similar paths.