Major Ridge, Cherokee Chief
The Cherokee Indian Nation resisted the encroachment of Euro-Americans on their lands, while at the same time adopting many of their cultural trappings. Major Ridge (Kah-nung-do-tla-geh) (ca. 1771–1839) a mixed-blood, slave-owning leader of the Chickamuaga Cherokees in Georgia and a friend of government agent Benjamin Hawkins, fought American settlers for years before becoming an advocate for cultural adaptation. He signed the Treaty of New Echota in 1835, which eventually resulted in the Trail of Tears, the forced migration of the Cherokee people to lands west of the Mississippi. He was killed by fellow Cherokees.
The Cherokee Indian Nation resisted the encroachment of Euro-Americans on their lands, while at the same time adopting many of their cultural trappings. Major Ridge (Kah-nung-do-tla-geh) (ca. 1771–1839) a mixed-blood, slave-owning leader of the Chickamuaga Cherokees in Georgia and a friend of government agent Benjamin Hawkins, fought American settlers for years before becoming an advocate for cultural adaptation. He signed the Treaty of New Echota in 1835, which eventually resulted in the Trail of Tears, the forced migration of the Cherokee people to lands west of the Mississippi. He was killed by fellow Cherokees.