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John Ross (Cherokee: ᎫᏫᏍᎫᏫ, romanized: Guwisguwi, lit. 'Mysterious Little White Bird'; October 3, 1790 – August 1, 1866) was the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation from 1828 to 1866; he served longer in that position than any other person. Described as the Moses of his people, Ross influenced the nation through such tumultuous events as the relocation to Indian Territory and the American Civil War. Ross was the son of a Cherokee mother and a Scottish father. His mother and maternal grandmother were each of mixed Scots-Cherokee ancestry but brought up in Cherokee culture, and his maternal grandfather was a Scottish immigrant. The Cherokee culture was and still is clan-based and is matrilineal, meaning that a Cherokee inherits their clan affiliation from the mother, and all men in a child’s clan are termed Uncle. Cherokee don’t marry within the same clan. The father fulfills responsibilities to provide for and to be part of the family unit with his wife and Children. The Cherokee absorbed mixed-race descendants into their culture and, by the time of Ross and Ridge, had what could be described as a mixed culture based on traditional Cherokee values but which deeply integrated other cultures, too. As a result, as young John was raised as Cherokee within a high social order, learning about colonial British society was an inherently Cherokee value. As an educated and socially prominent Cherokee, he was bilingual and bicultural. His parents sent him for formal schooling to institutions that served other mixed-race Cherokee. And while his blood quantum of one-eighth Cherokee was less than most prominent Cherokees of his time, he was an accepted and effective leader among his 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 Andrew Jackson. After the end of the Red Stick War (which was effectively a civil war among the Creek), 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 from the south side of the river (Cherokee Nation) to the north side (USA). His businesses served as the start of a community known as Ross's Landing on the Tennessee River (now Chattanooga, Tennessee). 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. Even the traditionalist full-blood Cherokee perceived that he had the skills necessary to contest the whites' demands that the Cherokee cede their land and move beyond the Mississippi River. In that position, Ross's first action was to reject an offer of $200,000 from the US Indian agent made for the Cherokee to relocate voluntarily. Thereafter Ross made more trips to Washington, even as white demands intensified. In 1824, Ross boldly petitioned Congress for redress of Cherokee grievances, which made the Cherokee the first tribe ever to do so. Along the way, Ross built political support in the US capital for the Cherokee cause. Both Pathkiller and Charles R. 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. Ross, a lifelong lawyer and politician within the Cherokee community, believed that he held sway enough with President Jackson to convince him to turn from the path of forced Cherokee removal. The remainder of Cherokee people followed Major Ridge’s Treaty Party, guided by the pragmatic view that President Jackson was bitterly determined to effect forced removal of the Cherokee from their lucrative aboriginal homelands. Ridge, nearly full blood and having been raised in the traditional Cherokee way, had served under Jackson in military campaigns and had seen much hand to hand combat in support of the United States. Unlike Ross’ purely political experience and aspirations to be accepted by the Jacksonian White House as a legitimate statesman, Ridge was confident in his traditional knowledge and guided by a keen and accurate understanding of Jackson’s motives and awareness of the larger historical events in which the Cherokee people were caught up. Ridge knew that Jackson would stop at nothing to see Native governments removed from the east, and he knew the ultimate sacrifice he would pay for advancing the Treaty of New Echota. Ever the pragmatist and leader, he willingly accepted his role and pushed west, knowing it gave the Cherokee people the best hope and footing for the future while also sealing his fate under the Cherokee blood law. Ross continued to serve as Principal Chief through the time of removal and mustered his best thinking to lead the Cherokee people. Leading up to the Civil War he was lukewarm on siding with the Confederacy but nonetheless committed to the South. However as the war tipped to the Union Ross abandoned his post as Chief and withdrew to Federal lands. Stand Watie stepped in as Principal Chief during this time to lead the people. During this time Ross sold his slaves and did other things to build his relationship with the new post-Civil-War Federal government, after which he re-assumed the office of Principal Chief and continued to work with politicia.... Discover the Ross Dobson popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Ross Dobson books.