Chief John Ross
The picture above of Chief John Ross was taken shortly before the signing of the new treaties in July of 1866.
Jackson's Administration began putting pressure on the Cherokees to sign treaties of removal, but it was to no avail. Major John Ridge, without authorization of the Cherokee Nation, led a treaty party to acquire the best possible terms from the government after Jackson's reelection in 1832. Chief John Ross and the majority of Cherokees remained adamantly opposed to the removal. Though there were only 500 members in the "Treaty Party" supporting actions, a treaty to cede the lands in exchange for $5,700,000 and new lands in present day Oklahoma was agreed upon and ratified by the U.S. Congress on May 23, 1836. The actions were repudiated by more than nine-tenths of the tribe and was not signed by a single elected Cherokee tribal official. Two years later, Chief John Ross and 15,000 Cherokees presented signatures in opposition to the treaty. Other white settlers also were outraged by the questionable legality of the treaty. On April 23, 1838, Ralph Waldo Emerson appealed to Jackson's successor, President Martin Van Buren, urging him not to inflict "so vast an outrage upon the Cherokee Nation.
Soon thereafter, the removal began and journey of the Cherokees became known as "The Trail of Tears". The 2,200 mile journey presented terrible hardships to the Cherokee as the road conditions, illness, cold, and exhaustion took thousands of lives, including Chief John Ross' wife Quatie. Though the federal government officially stated some 424 deaths, an American doctor traveling with one the party estimated that 2,000 people died in the camps and another 2,000 along the trail. Once the tribe was relocated to a site near present day Tahlequah, Oklahoma, John Ross was reelected Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation.
During the Civil War, the Cherokee aligned themselves with the Confederacy, a declaration that repudiated any treaties that had been formerly signed with the Federal Government. In September, 1865, Ross attended the Grand Council of Southern Indians where new treaties between the Cherokees and the Federal government were prepared. In July, 1866, though in failing health, he accompanied a delegation to Washington where new the treaties were signed on July 19, 1866. Soon after the treaties were signed, Ross took to his bed at the Medes Hotel in Washington D.C. where he died on August 1, 1866. His body was returned Indian territory where he is buried at Ross Cemetery in Park Hill, Oklahoma.
