Research Paper On John Ross A Cherokee Indian Chief

John Ross a Cherokee Indian Chief

John Ross was born on October 3, 1790 in Turkeytown, Alabama near present day Center, Alabama. He was born to a Scottish/Indian mother, and a Scottish father. Though, he was only 1/8 Cherokee Indian (on mothers side.) His mother and grandmother raised him according to Cherokee traditions. He enjoyed wearing Cherokee traditional clothing when he was a child and a young man, but as he got older, he dressed like a white man. He even looked like a white man. Most Cherokee Indians were tall, but he was shorter, and he had whiter skin than a normal Cherokee Indian would. At home, his family spoke English. He knew the Cherokee Indian language, but felt he wasn’t fluent enough so he didn’t like to use it in

They had a trade post near Lookout Mountain, in what today is called Chattanooga Tennessee. (Chattanooga was called Rossville up until the trail of tears when it was renamed Chattanooga.) He made enough money to buy a 200 acre plantation that was located in Rome, Georgia. He also had slaves on his land.

John Ross was elected to be the Cherokee Indian chief in 1827.John Ross and the Cherokee Indians helped the white men with many things, including getting the Creek Indians off the land because the Cherokees wanted to live in peace with the white men. So, the white men were fine with letting the Cherokees stay where they were UNTIL they heard there was a whole lot of gold on it, then the white men wanted the land. John Ross was committed to keeping the Cherokee land away from white men because he loved the land and Cherokee Indians a lot. He had even turned down 200,000 dollars that the white men were going to give him for the land. But, eventually, in the year 1830, things got really bad, the US Gov’t passed the Indian Removal Act and in Georgia the white men held a lottery to give away the Indians’ land. John Ross tried to use diplomacy to have the Cherokee’s rights to the land recognized. He went to the Supreme Court and won against the US Gov’t. The Court agreed that the Cherokees had rights to the land, but the president would not back down. Then in 1835, a few renegade Cherokees wrote up a false treaty and gave it to Congress. Congress liked it so they passed the treaty by one vote; this treaty gave the Cherokees land and money in Oklahoma in exchange for their Georgia/Alabama land. John Ross and 16,000 Cherokees petitioned against this treaty, claiming it was false and made without their permission. In 1838 the US Army entered Cherokee lands and forced them off. On the walk to Oklahoma, up to 6,000 of the 16,000 Cherokees