John ross cherokee chief biography sample

As the head of the largest branch of the Cherokee nation from 1828 to 1866, John Ross led the Cherokee through a period of profound cultural change.

Under Ross's leadership, the Cherokee nation engaged in a historic and controversial legal battle to preserve their sovereignty and underwent a disastrous forced march from Georgia to Oklahoma.

Ross was born near Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, on October 3, 1790.

Although he was only one-eighth Cherokee by blood, Cherokee cultural identity in the early 1800s was as much a matter of upbringing and choice as genetics, and Ross was raised and considered himself a Cherokee.

In 1809 at age nineteen, Ross was sent, at the behest of both U.S.

officials and Cherokee leaders, to confer with the western Cherokee, who had accepted payments from the United States

in exchange for an agreement to relocate to Oklahoma. Ross's quiet and reserved manner inspired confidence among both whites and Indians, and his skill at easing the tensions