John Ross (Cherokee chief)
John Ross was the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation from 1828 to 1866; he served longer in that position than any other person. Ross led the nation through such tumultuous events as forced removal to Indian Territory and the American Civil War. Ross was of Euro-Indigenous American descent. His father was a European man from Highland, Scotland. His mother was a Native-American woman from the Cherokee Nation.
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 European-American general, Andrew Jackson. After 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 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 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 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 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 Ross during 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, and the Eastern Emigrants on July 12, 1839 and 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 a regiment on behalf of the Confederate army. Second, surrounding states seceded. Third, surrounding Native-American 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 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 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 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 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 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.
Early life and education
Ross was born in Turkeytown, on the Coosa River, to Mollie and her husband Daniel Ross, an immigrant Scots trader. His siblings who survived to adulthood included Jane Ross Coodey, Elizabeth Grace Ross Ross, Lewis Ross, Andrew 'Tlo-s-ta-ma' Ross, Margaret Ross Hicks, and Maria Ross Mulkey.Genealogy
Ross was 1/8 Cherokee by blood. Under 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, a full-blood Cherokee, had married William Shorey, a Scottish interpreter. Their daughter, Anna, married John McDonald, a Scots trader.
Childhood and education
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 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.
Bicultural Background of John Ross
Ross's life was not unlike those of other bicultural people in 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.Family life
John Ross survived two wives and had several children. He married the widow Elizabeth "Quatie" Henley 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, William Allen Ross, Jane 'Jennie' Ross Meigs-Nave, Silas Dean Ross and George Washington Ross.John Ross remarried in 1844, to Mary Stapler, whom he survived by less than a year. Their surviving children were Annie Brian Ross Dobson and John Ross Jr..