Oil painting of Ross by John Neagle, 1848. John Ross (October 3, 1790 - August 1, 1866) was the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. He was one-eighth Cherokee and seven-eighths Scots. His mother was part Cherokee and belonged belonged to her Bird Clan
Oil painting of Ross by John Neagle, 1848. John Ross (October 3, 1790 - August 1, 1866) was the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. He was one-eighth Cherokee and seven-eighths Scots. His mother was part Cherokee and belonged belonged to her Bird Clan. He grew up in both Cherokee and frontier American environments. Educated in English by white men, he was a poor speaker of the Cherokee language, but his bi-cultural background allowed him to represent the Cherokee to the US government. By 1813, as relations with the US became more complex, older, uneducated chiefs could not effectively defend Cherokee interests. In 1817, the Cherokee formed the National Council and he was elected. Most of the members were wealthy, mixed-race and English-speaking, unlike most of the Cherokee, who still spoke only Cherokee. In 1824, he traveled to Washington to defend the Cherokees' possession of their land and took his cause to Congress. Never before had an Indian nation petitioned Congress with grievances. He was able to argue subtle points about legal responsibilities as well as whites. The majority of Cherokee supported Ross, electing him as their principal chief in every election from 1828 through 1860. His battles with the US government would go on for years, but in the end the Supreme Court decided that the Cherokee Nation were dependent on the federal government, much like a protectorate state, but still a sovereign entity, but federal legislation in the form of the Indian Removal Act exercised the federal government's legal power to handle the whole affair. Those Cherokee who did not emigrate to the Indian Territory by 1838 were forced to do so by General Winfield Scott. This forced removal came to be known as the Trail of Tears. Afterward, there were years of violence between the two factions. Dissent was exacerbated during the Civil War, when the majority of the Cherokee people supported the Confederacy. After the war, the two factions of the Cherokee tried to negotiate
Size: 3080px × 3928px
Photo credit: © Photo Researchers / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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