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111-738: In the 1830s, Ridge was part of the Treaty Party with his father Major Ridge, and cousins Elias Boudinot and Stand Watie . Believing that Indian Removal was inevitable, they supported making a treaty with the United States government to protect Cherokee rights. The Ridges and Boudinot were signatories to the Treaty of New Echota of 1835, by which they ceded Cherokee lands east of the Mississippi in exchange for lands in Indian Territory. The land cession

222-710: A Cherokee delegation to negotiate issues of national boundaries, land ownership, and white encroachment. As the only delegate fluent in English, Ross became the principal negotiator despite his relative youth. When he returned to the Cherokee Nation in 1817, he was elected to the National Council. He became council president in the following year. The majority of the council were men like Ross: wealthy, educated, English-speaking, and of mixed blood. In 1824, Ross boldly petitioned Congress for redress of Cherokee grievances, which made

333-500: A bi-lingual newspaper, the Phoenix published most of its articles in English; under Boudinot, about 16 percent of the content was published in Cherokee. The journalist Ann Lackey Landini believes that Boudinot emphasized English in the newspaper because the Cherokee Nation intended it to be a means to explain their people to European Americans and prove they had an admirable civilization. At

444-612: A child. He studied at the nearby mission school run by the Moravian Brethren at Spring Place, Cherokee Nation (now Georgia ). It was founded on land given to them by his father's mentor and fellow former warrior, James Vann . Ridge's father sent him to the Foreign Mission School in Cornwall, Connecticut , in 1819, where he learned reading and writing in English and other subjects typical of classical middle-class education at

555-688: A constitutional republic with delegated authority capable of formulating a clear, long-range policy to protect national rights. Ross found support in Congress from individuals in the National Republican Party , such as senators Henry Clay (Kentucky), Theodore Frelinghuysen , and Daniel Webster (Massachusetts), and representatives Ambrose Spencer and David (Davy) Crockett . Despite this support, in April 1829, John H. Eaton , Secretary of War (1829–1831), informed Ross that President Jackson would support

666-582: A family in Huntsville, Alabama, where he could be treated for his condition by a doctor. Another son traveled west with the Ridge family. The rest of the children were enrolled in school at Brainerd, where they could stay when Elias left the territory. Elias himself first went north to visit Harriet's parents. After that, he joined a group that included John Ridge and traveled to the Western Cherokee Nation, it

777-593: A few others to go to the Foreign Mission School . On the journey there, they were introduced to Virginia statesmen Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe . In Burlington, New Jersey , the young men met Elias Boudinot , president of the American Bible Society and a former member and president of the Second Continental Congress . He and Watie impressed each other, and Watie asked Boudinot for permission to use his name, which he gave. When enrolled at

888-408: A full-blood Cherokee, had married William Shorey, a Scottish interpreter. Their daughter, Anna, married John McDonald, a Scots trader. Ross spent his childhood with his parents near Lookout Mountain . Educated in English by white men in a frontier American environment, Ross spoke the Cherokee language poorly. His bi-cultural background and fluency in English enabled him to represent the Cherokee to

999-595: A man whom he had seen attack his uncle Major Ridge; he was acquitted on the grounds of self-defense. At his trial, he was represented by his nephew, E. C. Boudinot. He had become a lawyer in Arkansas after having been raised by his mother's family and educated in the East following his father's assassination. The violence lasted into 1846, when the US negotiated a tenuous peace treaty. The deep bitterness contributed to tribal divisions during

1110-513: A meeting in Nashville that Jackson proposed. The other tribes signed off on Jackson's terms. When Ross and the Cherokee delegation failed in their efforts to protect Cherokee lands through dealings with the executive branch and Congress, Ross took the radical step of defending Cherokee rights through the U.S. courts. In June 1830, at the urging of Senators Webster and Frelinghuysen, the Cherokee delegation selected William Wirt , US Attorney General in

1221-504: A member of a prominent family, and was born and grew up in Cherokee territory, now part of present-day Georgia. Born to parents of mixed Cherokee and European ancestry and educated at the Foreign Mission School in Connecticut , he became one of several leaders who believed that acculturation was critical to Cherokee survival. He was influential in the period of removal to Indian Territory . In 1826, Boudinot had married Harriet R. Gold ,

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1332-476: A permanent chief could be elected. Although believing he was the natural heir to his brother's position, William Hicks had not impressed the tribe with his abilities. A majority of the people knew that during the year Ross, not Hicks, had taken care of all of the regular business of the tribe. On October 17, 1828, the Cherokee elected John Ross as principal chief. Through the 1820s, the Cherokee Council passed

1443-693: A quarter mile from the Worcesters in Park Hill . Reunited with his longtime friend, Boudinot returned to his vocation as a translator of the Gospel. The "Old Settlers" and John Ross' supporters failed to agree on unification following the Nation's removal to Indian Territory. Some Ross supporters met secretly to plan assassinations of Treaty Party leaders over the hardships of the Removal and to eliminate them as political rivals in

1554-463: A regiment on behalf of the Confederate army. Second, surrounding states seceded. Third, surrounding Native nations signed treaties with the confederacy. And finally, federal troops abandoned the Indian Territory, leaving the Nation to defend itself in violation of treaty commitments. Rather than see the Cherokee Nation divided against itself again, Ross, with the consent of council, signed a treaty with

1665-492: A series of laws creating a bicameral national government, adopting structure from the US government. In 1822 they created the Cherokee Supreme Court, capping the creation of a three-branch government. In May 1827, Ross was elected to the twenty-four member constitutional committee. It drafted a constitution calling for a principal chief, a council of the principal chiefs, and a National Committee, which together would form

1776-641: A trading firm and warehouse. In total, he earned upwards of $ 1,000 a year ($ 17,953 in today's terms). Under pressure from white settlers in Tennessee, many Cherokee migrated into northeast Georgia. In 1827 Ross moved to Rome, Georgia , to be closer to New Echota , the Cherokee capital. In Rome, Ross established a ferry along the headwaters of the Coosa River close to the home of Major Ridge , an older wealthy and influential Cherokee leader. By December 1836, Ross's properties were appraised at $ 23,665 ($ 656596 today). He

1887-595: A way which would intimidate the Old Settlers into submission. On June 22, 1839, a group of unknown Cherokee assassinated Boudinot outside his home. They killed his cousin and uncle, John and Major Ridge, the same day. His brother Stand Watie was attacked but survived. Though Ross denied any connection to the killings, Stand Watie blamed the Principal Chief. After these murders followers of Watie and Ross engaged for years in violent conflict and retaliation. Watie killed

1998-487: A year. Their surviving children were Annie Brian Ross Dobson (1845–1876) and John Ross Jr. (1847–1905). At the age of twenty, having completed his education and with bilingual skills, Ross received an appointment as US Indian agent to the western Cherokee and was sent to their territory (in present-day Arkansas ). During the War of 1812 , he served as an adjutant in a Cherokee regiment. He fought under General Andrew Jackson at

2109-507: Is now Indian Territory . This was three years before the forced removal in 1838 of most of the Cherokee. The Ridges and other families joined the "Old Settlers" of the Cherokee Nation West under Principal Chief John Jolly . Some of them had migrated west in the 1820s from North Carolina or Alabama. On June 22, 1839, a group of 25 pro-Ross partisans of the "Late Comers" killed Ridge, his father, and Boudinot in revenge for having signed

2220-580: Is now known as the Trail of Tears . The Cherokees who wished to remain in the east to do so. They would have to give up their Cherokee tribal status and become citizens of the states where they resided (and the United States). This provision was widely ignored during removal. The US Army rounded up most Cherokee and their slaves from Georgia to take west. Among the Five Civilized Tribes , the Cherokee held

2331-582: The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), came to the community and served to support local education and recruit older students to study in the North. In 1817, the ABCFM opened the Foreign Mission School in Cornwall, Connecticut for educating promising students from foreign, non-Christian cultures, as well as Native American cultures. In 1818, Cornelius selected Gallegina Watie, John Ridge , and

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2442-650: The American Civil War . The post-removal factionalism and violence compounded the misfortune of the Cherokee Nation. During the Civil War, the Nation split into two factions. Stand Watie and his supporters, the majority of the Nation, sided with the Confederacy (he served as an officer in their army, along with other Cherokee.) Ross and his supporters sided with the Union. Many Union people had to leave Indian Territory during

2553-607: The Battle of Horseshoe Bend against the British -allied Upper Creek warriors, known as the Red Sticks . They were traditionalists, who resisted the assimilationist tendencies of the Lower Creek. The latter had lived more closely with European Americans and adopted some of their practices. Ross began a series of business ventures which made him among the wealthiest of all Cherokee. He derived

2664-521: The Cherokee Phoenix and forbade Boudinot from discussing pro-removal arguments in the paper. In protest, Boudinot resigned in the spring of 1832. Ross' brother-in-law, Elijah Hicks, replaced Boudinot as editor. In 1959, he was inducted into the Georgia Newspaper Hall of Fame in recognition of his newspaper work. The first newspaper published by a Native American tribe gave a "voice to

2775-581: The Cherokee Phoenix was named the Cherokee Phoenix and Indians’ Advocate, indicating Boudinot's ambition to influence people outside the tribe. Boudinot regularly wrote editorials related to Indian Removal. Boudinot delivered this speech in the First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia on May 26, 1826. He described the similarities between the Cherokee and the whites, and ways in which the Cherokee were adopting aspects of white culture. Boudinot

2886-595: The Confederate Army during the American Civil War and served as Principal Chief (1862-1866); and Thomas Watie. They were the nephews of Major Ridge and cousins of John Ridge . Gallegina Watie, the Ridges, John Ross , and Charles R. Hicks and his son Elijah Hicks, came to form the ruling elite of the Cherokee Nation in the early nineteenth century. All were of mixed race and had some European-American education;

2997-610: The Monroe and Adams administrations, to defend Cherokee rights before the U.S. Supreme Court . Wirt argued two cases on behalf of the Cherokee: Cherokee Nation v. Georgia and Worcester v. Georgia . In Cherokee Nation v. Georgia , Chief Justice John Marshall acknowledged that the Cherokee were a sovereign nation, stating, "[T]he Cherokees as a state, as a distinct political society, separated from others, capable of managing its own affairs and governing itself, has, in

3108-580: The Phoenix, Boudinot learned that, in Worcester v. Georgia , the US Supreme Court had sustained the Cherokee rights to political and territorial sovereignty within Georgia's borders. He soon learned that President Jackson still supported Indian Removal. In this context, Boudinot began advocating for his people to secure the best possible terms with the US by making a binding treaty of removal, as he believed it

3219-507: The matrilineal kinship system of the Cherokee, Ross and his siblings were considered born to his mother's family and Bird Clan . They gained their social status from her people. In such a system, typically the mother's eldest brother had a major role in the children's lives, especially for boys. His mother and grandmother were of mixed race, but also considered part of their mother's Cherokee family and clan, and were brought up primarily in Cherokee culture. Ross's great-grandmother Ghigooie,

3330-579: The syllabary created by Sequoyah . While studying in Connecticut, Boudinot met Harriet Ruggles Gold , the daughter of a prominent local family who supported the Foreign Mission School. Her family often invited Boudinot and other Native American students to their home. After Boudinot returned to Cherokee Nation because of illness, he courted Harriet by letter. His cousin John Ridge also attended

3441-580: The 1825 treaty, and the election of Andrew Jackson to the presidency enforced Indian removal. He signed congressional law in 1830. In 1836, most of the Creek left the Southeast for Indian Territory. As clerk of the Cherokee National Council, Ridge participated in tribal delegations to Washington, DC to consult with United States officials. In 1831 they protested Georgia's illegal annexation of that part of

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3552-526: The American insiders" who had been forced to become "outsiders". The premier edition of the newspaper was called the Tsalagi Tsu-le-hi-sa-nu-hi ; it was printed on 21 February 1828. The Cherokee Phoenix office regularly received correspondence from about 100 other newspapers, published far and wide, because it was so respected throughout the United States and Europe. In 1829, the second edition of

3663-487: The Cherokee Nation politically. Ross, backed by the vast majority, tried repeatedly to stop white political powers from forcing the nation to move. He led a faction that became known as the National Party. Twenty others, who came to believe that further resistance would be futile, wanted to seek the best settlement they could get and formed the "Treaty Party," or "Ridge Party," led by Major Ridge. Treaty Party negotiated with

3774-504: The Cherokee Nation refused to engage in battles against other Native peoples, including those Muscogee Creek people under Opothleyahola seeking refuge in Kansas. Once outside the Indian Territory, Ross negotiated agreements with the Union for Cherokee support through Indian Home Guard Regiments. Many of those formerly fighting for the Confederacy but loyal to Ross, switched sides to support

3885-472: The Cherokee Nation, as well as the women elders of his clan. By 1813, as relations with the United States became more complex, older chiefs such as Pathkiller could not effectively defend Cherokee interests. Ross's ascent showed that Cherokee leaders recognized the importance of having formally educated, English-speaking leaders to represent them. Both Pathkiller and Hicks trained Ross, who served as their clerk and worked on all financial and political matters of

3996-711: The Cherokee Nation. Ridge began to participate in the political affairs of the Nation. He became a leading member of the National Council, along with his cousin Elias Boudinot and his father's protégé, John Ross . Ridge was highly respected by all the tribes across the Southern United States for his abilities and faithfulness to Indian welfare. In the 1820s the Creek confederacy was under increasing pressure in their territories in Georgia and Alabama. Leaders had signed an 1821 treaty that ceded land. The second Treaty of Indian Springs ceded most of their remaining land to

4107-776: The Cherokee Nation. Despite these setbacks, Ross worked to re-establish a unified Cherokee Nation and re-establish a nation-to-nation treaty with the US. He died in Washington, DC on August 1, 1866. Ross (also known by his Cherokee name, Guwisguwi ) was born in Turkeytown (in modern day Alabama ), on the Coosa River , to Mollie (née McDonald) and her husband Daniel Ross, an immigrant Scots trader. His siblings who survived to adulthood included Jane Ross Coodey (1787–1844), Elizabeth Grace Ross Ross (1789–1876), Lewis Ross (1796–1870), Andrew 'Tlo-s-ta-ma' Ross (1798–1840), Margaret Ross Hicks (1803–1862), and Maria Ross Mulkey (1806–1838). Under

4218-545: The Cherokee Nation: they confiscated a large section of Cherokee occupied land, nullified Cherokee law within the confiscated area, banned further meetings of the Cherokee government in Georgia, declared contracts between Indians and whites null and void unless witnessed by two whites, disallowed Indians from testifying against a white person in court, and forbade Cherokee to dig for gold on their own lands. The laws were made effective June 1, 1830. These were calculated to force

4329-414: The Cherokee and whites. Ridge was among the first Cherokee men to marry a European-American woman. In the past, marriages between Europeans and Cherokee had most often been between European men, usually fur traders doing business in the territory, and high-status Cherokee women. Both peoples believed these strategic alliances benefited them, as it added to their influence. Generally, the man was living among

4440-478: The Cherokee cause on April 15, 1824. This fundamentally altered the traditional relationship between an Indian nation and the US government. Never before had an Indian nation petitioned Congress with grievances. In Ross's correspondence, what had previously been the tone of petitions by submissive Indians was replaced by assertive defenders. Ross was able to argue subtle points about legal responsibilities as well as whites. Some politicians in Washington recognized

4551-519: The Cherokee increased. Jackson supported removal of the Cherokee and other Southeastern peoples from their eastern homelands to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi in order to make land available for European-American development. Over a roughly four-year period, Boudinot's editorials emphasized that Georgia's disregard of the Constitution and past federal treaties with the Cherokee would not only hurt Cherokee progress in acculturating, but threatened

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4662-518: The Cherokee the first tribe ever to do so. Both Pathkiller and Hicks died in January 1827. Hicks's brother, William, was appointed interim chief. Ross and Major Ridge shared responsibilities for the affairs of the tribe. Because William did not impress the Cherokee as a leader, they elected Ross as permanent principal chief in October 1828, a position that he held until his death. The problem of removal split

4773-677: The Cherokee to move. In May 1830, Congress endorsed Jackson's policy of removal by passing the Indian Removal Act . Jackson signed the Act on May 23. It authorized the president to set aside lands west of the Mississippi to exchange for the lands of the Indian nations in the Southeast . In the summer of 1830, Jackson urged the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw and Creek to sign individual treaties accepting removal from their homelands. The Cherokee refused to attend

4884-406: The Cherokee to stay in the east. Ridge hoped to persuade the Nation of what he saw as the only way out of its dilemma. Together with his father and Boudinot, Ridge signed the Treaty of New Echota in 1835 after final negotiations with a delegation in Washington, D.C. They were part of the National Council's delegation, headed by Principal Chief John Ross, who still was trying to negotiate staying in

4995-598: The Cherokee's principal chief and last hereditary chief, and, two weeks later, Charles R. Hicks , Ross's mentor, both died. Ross, as president of the National Committee, and Major Ridge, as speaker of the National Council, were responsible for the affairs of the tribe. In a letter dated February 23, 1827, to Colonel Hugh Montgomery, the Cherokee agent, Ross wrote that with the death of Hicks, he had assumed responsibility for all public business of The Nation. Charles Hicks's brother William served briefly as interim chief until

5106-450: The Cherokee. (Formerly, they had no official place in the matrilineal tribe, as children belong to their mother's clan and people, and the white women were outsiders.) The Boudinots returned to Cherokee homelands (now in Georgia) to live at New Echota. They reared their six children as Cherokee. Boudinot, with numerous other leading Cherokee, particularly those who had been educated outside

5217-408: The Cherokee. Also, in the Cherokee matrilineal kinship culture, the children were considered born to their mother's family and clan , and thus accepted into the Nation as fully Cherokee, with their mother's status. Because white women were outsiders, with no place in the tribe, their descendants would have no status and not be considered Cherokee. After Ridge returned with Sarah to Georgia, in 1825,

5328-467: The Confederacy. For the Cherokee Nation, the Civil War represented the extended divisions created by Removal and the Trail of Tears. Ross supporters largely served under John Drew's regiment. Treaty Party supporters largely served under Stand Watie. During the war, federal troops arrested Ross and removed him from Indian Territory. Many Cherokee people less committed to the Confederacy and more committed to

5439-514: The Court found that Georgia could not extend its laws to the Cherokee Nation because that was a power of the federal government. Marshall stated that "the acts of Georgia are repugnant to the Constitution, laws and treaties of the United States. They interfere forcibly with the relations established between the United States and the Cherokee nation, the regulation of which, according to the settled principles of our Constitution, are committed exclusively to

5550-580: The East. Since the treaty surrendered all Cherokee land east of the Mississippi River, the opposing Ross faction, known as the National Party, regarded the Treaty Party representatives as traitors. Despite the known divisions within the tribe and the lack of signature by Principal Chief Ross, the US Senate ratified the treaty. President Jackson used it to justify the forcible Cherokee removal in 1838, in what

5661-458: The Foreign Mission School, Watie started using the name Elias Boudinot, which he kept for the rest of his life. In 1820, Boudinot officially converted to Christianity, attracted to its message of universal love. His Christian belief informed his later work with the Cherokee Nation. In 1824, Boudinot collaborated with others in translating the New Testament into Cherokee and having it printed in

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5772-490: The General Council of the Cherokee Nation, a constitutional republic. Although the constitution was ratified in October 1827, it did not take effect until October 1828, at which point Ross was elected principal chief. He was repeatedly reelected and held this position until his death in 1866. He was very popular, among both full-bloods, who comprised three-fourths of the population, and mixed-bloods. The Cherokee had created

5883-476: The Mississippi River. Although this was opposed by the majority of the delegation and lacked the signature of the Principal Chief John Ross , the US Senate ratified the treaty. Afterward, faced with open enmity among the Cherokee, many of the signatories and their families migrated to Indian Territory , where they located with the "Old Settlers", who had gone there in the 1820s. During 1838 and 1839,

5994-427: The Nation which lay within its territory. (Congress had passed the Indian Removal Act in 1830, but Georgia did not wait.) In 1832, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Worcester v. Georgia , that Georgia's unilateral extension of its laws over Cherokee territory was illegal and unconstitutional. It ruled that the Cherokee Nation had sovereign status and appropriately would deal only with the US government. The delegation

6105-579: The National Council passed a law enabling children of such unions to have full Cherokee citizenship, as if they were of Cherokee descent on their mother's side. By this time, Ridge's cousin Elias Boudinot (the oldest son of David Watie) had announced his engagement, also to a European-American woman from Cornwall, Connecticut. Given the high status of these two young men, the Council's new ruling provided for their future families and protected their children within

6216-499: The National Council placed Ross among the Cherokee ruling elite. The majority of the men were wealthy, of mixed-race , and English-speaking. Most Cherokee still spoke only Cherokee. In November 1818, just before the General Council meeting with U.S. Indian agent Joseph McMinn , who was assigned to deal with the Cherokee, Ross became president of the National Committee, a position he would hold through 1827. The Council selected Ross for that leadership position because they believed he had

6327-463: The Trail of Tears. Removal and the subsequent coordinated executions of Treaty Party signers Major Ridge, John Ridge, and former editor of the Cherokee Phoenix Elias Boudinot on June 22, 1839 thrust the Cherokee Nation into a civil war. Despite the Act of Union signed by Old Settlers, (Cherokees who removed west earlier under the Treaties of 1817 and 1819) and the Eastern Emigrants (those forced to remove under Ross's leadership) on July 12, 1839 and

6438-404: The US Army enforced the Removal Act and evicted the Cherokee and their slaves from their homes in the Southeast. They forced most of them west into Indian Territory (in eastern present-day Oklahoma). The Cherokee referred to their journey as the Trail of Tears . After his wife's death in 1836, Boudinot needed to relocate both himself and the children. He sent their son, Cornelius, to live with

6549-440: The Union through the Indian Home Guard. Ross's absence from Indian Territory provided a political opening for Watie. While Ross was away, those loyal to Watie elected him Principal Chief. When Ross returned, an election was held re-electing him to the office. At those close of the war, those calling themselves the Southern Cherokees under Watie's leadership stepped forward as the rightful negotiators of any treaty, as did Ross as

6660-509: The United States and signed the Treaty of New Echota on December 29, 1835, which required the Cherokee to leave by 1838. Neither Chief Ross nor the national council ever approved this treaty, but the US government regarded it as valid. The majority, about two-thirds of Cherokee people, followed the National Party and objected to and voted against complying with the Treaty of New Echota. Forced removal spared no one, including Principal Chief Ross, who lost his first wife Quatie (Brown) Ross during

6771-701: The United States government. Many full-blood Cherokee frequented his father's trading company, so he encountered tribal members on many levels. As a child, Ross participated in tribal events, such as the Green Corn Festival . The elder Ross insisted that John also receive a rigorous classical education. After being educated at home, Ross pursued higher studies with the Reverend Gideon Blackburn , who established two schools in southeast Tennessee for Cherokee children. Classes were in English and students were mostly of mixed race, like Ross. The young Ross finished his education at an academy in South West Point , near Kingston, Tennessee . Ross's life of other bicultural people in

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6882-402: The United States. Chief William McIntosh of the Lower Creek had led the signatories, but the Creek National Council had not agreed to this cession of communal lands. It passed a death sentence against McIntosh and other signatories, who were killed. Not ready to give up, in 1825 the Upper Creeks planned to appeal to President John Quincy Adams because of what they considered the illegality of

6993-515: The Upper Creeks, who opposed any further land cessions. He stressed that the National Council had not approved the 1825 treaty, making it illegal. He gave the speech to General Edmund P. Gaines , the commander of the U. S. Army in Georgia. That speech was successful in winning General Gaines's support for the Creek position. President Adams was also sympathetic, and this delegation negotiated the Treaty of Washington (1826) , which had more favorable terms. But Georgia continued to press for removal under

7104-491: The act, Boudinot began to believe that Indian Removal was inevitable. He thought the best outcome was for the Cherokee to secure their rights through treaty, before they were moved against their will. Boudinot used all of his writing and oratory skills to influence Indian Removal policy, but many within the nation opposed his viewpoint. He criticized the popular principal chief John Ross, who opposed his ideas. Ross had ordered Boudinot to stop publishing his views favoring removal in

7215-485: The ceded lands and clarify Cherokee right to the remaining lands. Secretary of War John C. Calhoun pressed Ross to cede large tracts of land in Tennessee and Georgia. Although he refused, the US government pressure continued and intensified. In October 1822, Calhoun requested that the Cherokee relinquish their land claimed by Georgia, in fulfillment of the United States' obligation under the Compact of 1802 . Before responding to Calhoun's proposition, Ross first ascertained

7326-698: The change represented by Ross's leadership. Future president John Quincy Adams wrote, "[T]here was less Indian oratory, and more of the common style of white discourse, than in the same chief's speech on their first introduction." Adams specifically noted Ross as "the writer of the delegation" and remarked that "they [had] sustained a written controversy against the Georgia delegation with greate[sic] advantage." Georgia's delegation indirectly acknowledged Ross's skill: an editorial published in The Georgia Journal charged that "the Cherokee delegation's letters were fraudulent" because "too refined to have been written or dictated by an Indian". In January 1827, Pathkiller ,

7437-448: The daughter of a prominent New England family in Cornwall, Connecticut . He met her while a student at the FMS in town. Following his cousin John Ridge 's marriage to a local woman there in 1825, Boudinot's marriage was controversial and opposed by many townspeople. But to protect their future children, the Cherokee National Council had passed a law in 1825 enabling the descendants of Cherokee fathers and white mothers to be full citizens of

7548-418: The diplomatic skills necessary to rebuff American requests to cede Cherokee lands. He soon refused McMinn's offer of $ 200,000 US, conditioned upon the Cherokee voluntarily removing to the west beyond the Mississippi . In 1819, the Council sent Ross with a delegation to Washington, D.C. He assumed a larger leadership role. The delegation proposed to clarify the provisions of the Treaty of 1817 —both to limit

7659-420: The elected chief. The US required the Five Civilized Tribes to negotiate new peace treaties after the war. Ross made another trip to Washington, DC, for this purpose. Although Ross had negotiated with Lincoln during the war, his assassination enabled US commissioners to treat the Cherokee Nation as a defeated enemy. As Ross had feared, commissioners used the political divisions to extract greater penalties from

7770-569: The end of the Red Stick War , Ross started a tobacco plantation in Tennessee . In 1816, he built a warehouse and trading post on the Tennessee River north of the mouth of Chattanooga Creek , and started a ferry service that carried passengers across the river. Concurrently, Ross developed a keen interest in Cherokee politics and attracted the attention of the Cherokee elders, especially Principal Chiefs Pathkiller and Charles R. Hicks . Together with Major Ridge , they became his political mentors. Ross first went to Washington, DC, in 1816 as part of

7881-412: The fabric of the Union. Boudinot's articles recounted the elements of Cherokee assimilation (conversion to Christianity, an increasingly Western-educated population, and a turn toward lives as herdsmen and farmers, etc.) He criticized the "easy" way in which treaty language was distorted by Indian Removal advocates for their own purposes. In 1832, while on a speaking tour of the North to raise funds for

7992-444: The federal government's legal power to handle the whole affair. The series of decisions embarrassed Jackson politically, as Whigs attempted to use the issue in the 1832 election. They largely supported his earlier opinion that the "Indian Question" was one that was best handled by the federal government, and not local authorities. Meanwhile, the Cherokee Nation had encountered financial hard times. The U. S. government had stopped paying

8103-473: The government of the Union." The Cherokee were considered sovereign enough to legally resist the government of Georgia, and they were encouraged to do so. The court maintained that the Cherokee Nation was dependent on the federal government, much like a protectorate state, but still a sovereign entity. But the dispute was made moot when federal legislation in the form of the Indian Removal Act exercised

8214-414: The growth of the cotton industry, and the relentless European-American desire for land in the Southeast. European Americans resented Cherokee control of their lands, and conflicts increasingly arose. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 called for all Indian peoples living east of the Mississippi River to be removed and sent west beyond the river. While the majority of the Cherokee led by Chief John Ross opposed

8325-513: The law was inspired by Ridge's marriage and Boudinot's engagement; as the young men were elite Cherokee, it protected the status of their future children. When Boudinot and Gold first announced their engagement, it was strongly opposed by her family and the Congregational Church. There were also local protests. Gold persisted and finally gained her parents' permission. The couple were married on 28 March 1826 at her home. Local hostility to

8436-469: The majority of his wealth from cultivating 170 acres (0.69 km ) tobacco in Tennessee; it was the major commodity crop. He held about 20 enslaved African Americans to cultivate and process this labor-intensive crop. In 1816 he founded Ross's Landing , served by a ferry crossing. After the Cherokee were removed to Indian Territory in the 1830s, European-American settlers changed the name of Ross's Landing to Chattanooga. In addition, Ross had established

8547-600: The marriage, the second between a Cherokee student and a white woman, forced the closing of the Foreign Mission School. The Boudinots returned to New Echota to live. They had six surviving children: Eleanor Susan; Mary Harriett; William Penn; Sarah Parkhill, Elias Cornelius; and Franklin Brinsmade. Five of the children later married and had families of their own. Harriet Boudinot died in August 1836, likely of complications from childbirth; she died some months after her seventh child

8658-483: The most enslaved African Americans. There were also some free people of color in the tribe, of mixed Cherokee/African-American descent. Prior to removal, Ridge owned twenty-one slaves and had developed a slave plantation at Running Waters, Georgia, near the Oostanaula River . After the treaty signing, Ridge moved with his family, his father and most of his siblings, his uncle (David Watie), and Watie cousins to what

8769-417: The mother's clan and took their status from her people. The Cherokee had long absorbed the mixed-race children of Cherokee mothers and white fathers (usually fur traders). But, the children of Ridge and Boudinot would have had no place in the Cherokee society without the Council's new law, as white women were outsiders and their children would not be considered Cherokee. Historian Theresa Strouth Gaul wrote that

8880-455: The nation through such tumultuous events as forced removal to Indian Territory and the American Civil War . Ross's parents sent him for formal schooling to institutions that served other bicultural Cherokee people. At the age of twenty, Ross was appointed as a US Indian agent in 1811. During the War of 1812, he served as adjutant of a Cherokee regiment under the command of Andrew Jackson . After

8991-426: The nation. They also steeped him in Cherokee tradition. In a series of letters to Ross, Hicks outlined known Cherokee traditions. In 1816, the chief's council named Ross to his first delegation to American leaders in Washington, D.C. The delegation of 1816 was directed to resolve sensitive issues, including national boundaries, land ownership, and white encroachment on Cherokee land, particularly in Georgia. Only Ross

9102-475: The new Cherokee Constitution that followed August 23, 1839, violent reprisals continued through 1846. Cherokee people continued to elect Ross as Principal Chief through the Civil War Era. Ross hoped to maintain neutrality during the Civil War, but a variety of conditions prevented him from doing so. First, Stand Watie, a political opponent, Treaty Party member, kin to the Ridges, and Boudinot's brother raised

9213-407: The newspaper. In 1832, Boudinot resigned as editor of the Cherokee Phoenix, giving his reasons his inadequate salary, personal health problems, and the inability of the Cherokee Nation to provide sufficient supplies to run a national newspaper. However, in a letter to John Ross, he indicated that he could no longer serve because he was unable to print what he believed to be true about the dangers to

9324-764: The northern United States and Canada. Many Cherokee people intermarried with Scottish traders during the eighteenth century. Scots and English fur traders in North America were typically men of social status and financial standing who married high-ranking Native American women. Both sides believed these were strategic alliances, helping both the Native Americans and the traders. They educated their children in bi-cultural and multilingual environments. The bicultural children often married and rose to positions of stature in society, both in political and economic terms. John Ross survived two wives and had several children. He married

9435-493: The opinion of a majority of the judges, been completely successful." But he did not compel President Jackson to take action that would defend the Cherokee from Georgia's laws, because he did not find that the U.S. Supreme Court had original jurisdiction over a case in which a tribe was a party. In 1832, the Supreme Court further defined the relation of the federal government and the Cherokee Nation. In Worcester v. Georgia ,

9546-507: The people from continuing to oppose removal. Ross and the council accepted the resignation and appointed Elijah Hicks to run the newspaper. Although Hicks was a good businessman he had no newspaper experience. The Cherokee Phoenix soon declined and ceased publication on 31 May 1834. Boudinot and Treaty Party leaders signed the Treaty of New Echota (1835) in New Echota, Cherokee Nation (now Calhoun, Georgia ) ceding all Cherokee land east of

9657-492: The right of Georgia to extend her laws over the Cherokee people. On December 8, 1829, President Andrew Jackson made a speech announcing his intention to pass a bill through Congress by the following spring requiring Indian tribes living in the Southeastern states to move west of the Mississippi and cede their land claims in the East. On December 19, 1829, the Georgia legislature, enacted a series of laws that greatly restricted

9768-421: The same time, the Council intended it to unite the Cherokee through the Southeast. The Phoenix regularly published new laws and other national Cherokee political information in the paper. Between 1828 and 1832, Boudinot wrote numerous editorials arguing against removal , as proposed by Georgia and supported by President Andrew Jackson . After Congress passed the Indian Removal Act of 1830, federal pressure on

9879-456: The school and in 1824 married a local young woman. This caused considerable controversy in Cornwall, as many townspeople opposed the marriage. After the Ridges' return to New Echota to live, in 1825 the National Council passed a law providing full Cherokee citizenship to children of a Cherokee father and white mother. In the Cherokee matrilineal kinship culture, children traditionally belonged to

9990-441: The school. While at school in Cornwall, Ridge fell in love with Sarah Bird Northrup, the daughter of the school's steward. After two years, he convinced her parents to allow them to marry, which they did in January 1824. The Cornwall community reacted angrily to the marriage of a Native American man and a white woman. Their hostility decreased Ridge's admiration for European Americans and altered his hopes for future relations between

10101-453: The sentiment of the Cherokee people. They were unanimously opposed to further cession of land. In January 1824, Ross traveled to Washington to defend the Cherokee possession of their land. Calhoun offered two solutions to the Cherokee delegation: either relinquish title to their lands and remove west, or accept denationalization and become citizens of the United States. Rather than accept Calhoun's ultimatum, Ross directly petitioned Congress for

10212-457: The side of the Confederacy in the U.S. Civil War . John Ridge was born to the Cherokee chief Major Ridge and his wife Sehoya around 1802 in their village of Oothacaloga , near present-day Calhoun, Georgia . The Cherokee were a matrilineal tribe, so he was considered to belong to the Wild Potato Clan through his mother, Sehoya (Susannah Catherine Wickett). Ridge was often sick as

10323-448: The time. The school was originally founded to educate students from non-Christian areas, such as India, Hawaii, and Southeast Asia, to prepare them to return to their peoples as missionaries. Many families in the town supported the school and were hospitable to its students. As the top-ranked student, Ridge was asked to write an essay for President James Monroe , to be presented by Jedidiah Morse . His cousin Elias Boudinot also studied at

10434-399: The treaty to cede Cherokee lands. They also attacked Stand Watie , but he survived. Later they killed other Treaty Party members. Elias Boudinot (Cherokee) Elias Boudinot ( Cherokee : ᎦᎴᎩᎾ ᎤᏩᏘ , romanized:  Gallegina Uwati ; 1802 – June 22, 1839; also known as Buck Watie ) was a writer, newspaper editor, and leader of the Cherokee Nation . He was

10545-565: The treaty. Because Chief Opothleyahola, their Speaker, was not fluent in English, the Creek delegation retained two young Cherokee men, recommended by Major Ridge , to assist them in preparing his speech. The Creek knew that Senator Andrew Jackson (D-TN) thought highly of Major Ridge , who had served with him in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend during the Creek Wars. Major Ridge recommended his son John Ridge and David Vann . Ridge and Vann worked on remarks to be presented by Chief Opothleyahola of

10656-566: The tribal chiefs had worked to prepare these young men to deal with the United States and its representatives. Gallegina's Christian education began in 1808, at the age of 6, when Boudinot studied at the local Moravian missionary school. In 1812, he joined the Spring Place school, in what is now Murray County . Around this time, Cherokee leaders were petitioning the government for aid to educate their children, as they wanted to learn aspects of white civilization. Elias Cornelius , an agent from

10767-646: The tribe was forced to cede most of its lands in the Southeast, and remove to west of the Mississippi River in Indian Territory in the late 1830s. After Harriet died in 1836, Boudinot moved with his children to Indian Territory. After Removal, in June 1839 he and three other Treaty Party leaders were assassinated there by members of the Ross faction, known as the National Party. The orphaned Boudinot children were sent to be raised by his parents-in-law in Cornwall, Connecticut, which

10878-416: The tribe, believed that removal was inevitable in the face of the numbers of United States settlers encroaching on their lands. He and several allies signed the Treaty of New Echota in 1835, hoping to gain the best conditions for their people. Cession of communal lands was adamantly opposed by John Ross , the Principal Chief, and the full-blood members of tribe, who comprised the majority. The following year,

10989-514: The war for their own safety. They returned after the Union victory, and Ross was the only chief recognized by the US. John Ross (Cherokee chief) John Ross ( Cherokee : ᎫᏫᏍᎫᏫ , romanized:  Guwisguwi , lit.   'Mysterious Little White Bird'; October 3, 1790 – August 1, 1866) was the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation from 1828 to 1866; he served longer in that position than any other person. Ross led

11100-590: The widow Elizabeth "Quatie" (Brown) Henley (1791–1839) in 1812 or 1813. She was a Cherokee, born in 1791 and had one child from her marriage. Her late husband, Robert Henley, may have died during the War of 1812. Quatie Ross died in 1839 in Arkansas on the Trail of Tears as discussed below. She was survived by their children James McDonald Ross (1814–1864), William Allen Ross (1817–1891), Jane Ross Meigs-Nave (1821–1894), Silas Dean Ross (1829–1872) and George Washington Ross (1830–1870). John Ross remarried in 1844, to Mary Stapler (1826–1865), whom he survived by less than

11211-453: Was stillborn . After his return to New Echota, in 1828 Boudinot was selected by the General Council of the Cherokee as editor for a newspaper, the first to be published by a Native American nation. He worked with a new friend Samuel Worcester , a missionary and printer. Worcester had new type created and cast for the new forms of the Cherokee syllabary . In 1828, the two printed the Cherokee Phoenix in Cherokee and English. While planned as

11322-682: Was believed more safe. They attended school there. After Boudinot's son E. C. was educated, he returned west, settling in Fayetteville, Arkansas . He became an attorney and active in tribal and Democratic Party politics. He represented the Cherokee Nation in the Confederate Congress as a non-voting delegate. Boudinot appears as a character in Unto These Hills , an outdoor drama that has been performed in Cherokee, NC since 1950. Gallegina

11433-428: Was born in 1802 into a leading Cherokee family in their territory. (It is now present-day Georgia.) He was the eldest son of nine children of Uwati and Susanna Reese, who was of mixed Cherokee and European ancestry. When Uwati converted to Christianity, Boudinot took the name of David Uwatie (later he dropped the "u" from his name.) Gallegina's younger brothers were Degataga , better known as Stand Watie , who served with

11544-432: Was dismayed to learn that President Andrew Jackson continued to support the removal of all the Southeast tribes to lands west of the Mississippi River. Ridge reluctantly began to think that removal, which he had previously opposed, was inevitable. Ridge and Boudinot both became leaders of the "Treaty Party," a group that advocated negotiation of removal under a treaty to protect Cherokee rights. They had begun to believe it

11655-402: Was established by "Old Settlers" in the northeast quarter of what is today Oklahoma. Two months later he wrote to Harriet's parents that he had married Delight Sargent, a New England woman who had been a teacher at New Echota. Impoverished, he received $ 500 from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (thanks to persuasive argument from Samuel Worcester) to build a modest house

11766-525: Was fluent in English, making him a central figure, although Cherokee society traditionally favored older leaders. In November 1817, the Cherokee formed the National Council . Ross was elected to the thirteen-member body, where each man served two-year terms. The National Council was created to consolidate Cherokee political authority after General Andrew Jackson made two treaties with small cliques of Cherokee representing minority factions. Membership in

11877-450: Was fundraising for a Cherokee national academy and printing equipment for the newspaper, support for "civilizing" the Cherokee. Following the speech, he published his speech in a pamphlet by the same title. "An Address to the Whites" was well received and "proved to be remarkably effective at fund-raising". The Indian removal policy was a result of the discovery of gold in Cherokee territory ,

11988-462: Was inevitable. His changed position was widely opposed by the Cherokee. The National Council and John Ross , the Principal Chief, opposed removal, as did the majority of the people. Former allies in the Cherokee government turned against Boudinot and other "treaty advocates," who included John Ridge and Major Ridge. Opponents attacked the men's loyalty and prevented their speaking in councils. Ross denounced Boudinot's "toleration of diversified views in

12099-407: Was opposed by the majority of the tribe and the Principal Chief John Ross , but the treaty was ratified by the US Senate. In 1839, after removal to Indian Territory , opponents assassinated the Ridges, Boudinot, and other Treaty Party members for their roles in the land cession. This eliminated them as political rivals in the new territory. Stand Watie survived such an attack and later fought on

12210-535: Was ranked as one of the five wealthiest men in the Cherokee Nation. Between 1811 and 1827, Ross learned how to conduct negotiations with the United States and acquire leadership skills to run a national government. After 1814, Ross's political career as a Cherokee legislator and diplomat progressed with the support of such individuals as the Principal Chief Pathkiller , Assistant Principal Chief Charles R. Hicks , and Casey Holmes , an elder statesman of

12321-475: Was the only way to preserve the Cherokee Nation, as European-American settlers continued to encroach on their lands, leading to armed conflicts. They believed they had to give up the Cherokee land illegally annexed by Georgia. The majority of the Cherokee, who did not support acculturation, sided with the Principal Chief John Ross in opposing removal. Ross hoped to make a settlement with the US allowing

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