John Ross (Cherokee Chief) - Background

Background

In the first half of the 19th century, the Cherokee had formed a nation state, lost their ancestral homelands, endured removal to the Indian Territory, and suffered defeat in the American Civil War (due to an early alliance of the majority with the Confederacy). During this period, one dominant political figure in the Cherokee Nation was John Ross. As his mother was part Cherokee and belonged to the tribe, Ross belonged to her Bird Clan, as the Cherokee people followed a matrilineal system. By ancestry, he was one-eighth Cherokee and seven-eighths Scots, and 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 United States government. He became one of the wealthiest men of The Nation.

In terms of heritage, education, status, and economic pursuits, Ross resembled his political foes, President Andrew Jackson and Governor George R. Gilmer of Georgia. He was among the elite of the Cherokee Nation. By his own person, he called into question many of the 19th-century European-American assumptions about race and Native Americans.