The Cherokee, the Chickamauga, and John Ross

The Cherokee, the Chickamauga, and John Ross. . , From the time the Tennessee Valley was first inhabited over 10,000 years ago, the Tennessee River and its tributaries have been a vital source of transportation, communication and trade. When regular contact between Europeans and Cherokees became common, much of the Chattanooga area was hunted but uninhabited because it was the disputed territory of three native tribes. After Britain gained colonial control of all lands east of the Mississippi River, they proclaimed much of the southwest territory off-limits to settlers. So, while the British considered much of East Tennessee, North Georgia, and Northeast Alabama Cherokee land, American settlers wanted these lands for their own. , , In 1775, Richard Henderson, a North Carolina judge, negotiated a treaty with several Cherokee chiefs which ceded 20,000,000 acres of Cherokee land. It was this treaty which provoked the young brave Tsu-gun-sini--Draggin Canoe--to withdraw his followers to the Chattanooga area. From here they planned to prevent further loss of Cherokee lands. , , In this struggle, Draggin Canoe was aided by John McDonald, a Scotsman who had established a trading post in the gap of Missionary Ridge later known as Rossville, who was also Britain's agent to the Cherokee. From the time of America's Revolutionary War until 1794, Dragging Canoe and his followers (called the Chickamauga, though they were not a separate tribe) were responsible for several raids on colonial properties and people, but the main threat they raised was to settlers attempting to move west via the Tennessee River. In 1785, the Chickamaugas stopped a boat carrying trade goods south from Baltimore. John McDonald prevented them from killing the boat's passengers, one of whom was a fellow Scotsman, Daniel Ross. , , Ross joined McDonald as a trading partner, and cemented this union by marrying McDonald's daughter. The third child of this marriage, though only one-eighth Cherokee, became one of the greatest of the Cherokee leaders, John Ross. , , John Ross spent his first years in North Georgia, near the Coosa River. In 1800, when he was 10, his father established a homestead at the foot of Lookout Mountain, on the road between Brown's Ferry and John McDonald's trading post. In 1813, Ross married Quatie Brown, and shortly thereafter, he joined the group of Cherokees who fought with Andrew Jackson against the British and the Creek in the war of 18 12. Upon returning from battle, John Ross and Timothy Meigs established a mercantile business near the mouth of the Hiwassee River. When Meigs died in 1815, John's brother, Lewis Ross, joined the company. Leaving Lewis in charge of the Hiwassee operation, Ross moved downriver to build a ferry and warehouse on the south bank of the Tennessee River. Ross's Landing (pictured top right) stretched from the foot of the bluff as far west as today's Market Street, which was possibly the site where Ross's ferry landed. , , The type of ferry built by Ross is not known, but a swing ferry (pictured bottom right) was in use in the 1850's. This ferry traveled from bank to bank like a pendulum, with its hub on Chattanooga (now Maclellan) Island. A cable attached to this hub was suspended by several buoys and attached to a flat-bottomed craft. By moving the rudder, the operator could use the current of the river to push the platform and its cargo to the chosen bank. , , In 1819, Cherokee land north of the Tennessee River was ceded to the United States. That same year, John Ross was elected president of the Cherokee National Committee. Tennessee's General Assembly created Hamilton County in the fall of 1819, making Ross's Landing an active hub for the transfer of goods from one nation to another. Ross himself stood as the chief negotiator between these two nations. , , In 1826, Ross sold his Rossville holdings, the ferry, and the warehouse. He then moved closer to the capital of the Cherokee Nation in North Georgia, committing his energy to the struggle to maintain possession of Cherokee lands. Though many Cherokees had moved west of the Mississippi as early as 1817, the vast majority had remained behind, hoping a permanent settlement could be reached with the U.S. Government. Chief John Ross worked toward this goal for 20 years, but when three rival leaders signed the Treaty of Removal in 1836, Ross's work was futile. This treaty ceded all Cherokee land east of the Mississippi to the United States. In return, the Cherokees received five million dollars and seven million acres in the west. The removal was to be completed within two years. Ross continued to challenge the validity of the treaty (those who signed it were later assassinated, but to no avail. In 1838, the Cherokee were forcibly removed from their farms and villages, to be held in three stockades, one of which was located near Ross's Landing. Three groups left Ross's Landing in June, 1838, but sent news that poor traveling conditions had caused the death of several of their number. Ross asked for a delay in the Removal so that the summer heat and low water might be avoided. This delay was granted, and 2500 Cherokees spent the summer in Camp Cherokee, near Ross's Landing. , , Later in the fall of 1838, the final group of 13,000 marched away from Rattlesnake Springs, near Charleston, Tennessee. Hundreds died on the journey, and among them was Ross's wife. The loss, both to our region, and to its native inhabitants, remains incalculable. , , Though Ross and his people were forced to leave, the settlement which had grown around his ferry and warehouse continued to grow as a center of the river and rail trade, and just twenty-five years after the forced removal of the Cherokee Nation, the Chattanooga area would again be the site of a tragic struggle between two nations.