Chieftains Museum
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
Chieftain House
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Location	501 Riverside Pkwy NE,Rome, Georgia
Coordinates	34°16′38″N85°10′13″W / 34.27710°N 85.17019°W /34.27710; -85.17019
Built	1819
Architect	Major Ridge
NRHP reference No.	71000273
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	April 7, 1971[1]
Designated NHL	November 7, 1973[2]

Chieftains Museum, also known as theMajor Ridge Home, is a two-story white frame house built around a log house of 1819 inCherokee country (it is within present-dayRome, Georgia, US). It was the home of theCherokee leaderMajor Ridge. He was notable for his role in negotiating and signing theTreaty of New Echota of 1835, which ceded the remainder of Cherokee lands in the Southeast to the United States. He was part of a minority group known as the Treaty Party, who believed that relocation was inevitable and wanted to negotiate the best deal with the United States for their people.

The chiefs had agreed they could not go to war against the United States on the removal issue, but most other Cherokee opposed Ridge and the Treaty Party. He and some other members of the Treaty Party were assassinated after most of the tribe was removed to what became theCherokee Nation in Indian Territory, for having ceded the tribe's communal lands, as this was considered a capital crime.

Major Ridge's first house here was small and built of hand-hewn logs, in thedogtrot style. He made later additions to formally enclose the dogtrot and added extensions at each side, creating a white wood-frame two-story house. This was the "Big House" of his busy 223-acre plantation, the property of which extended to the banks of theOostanaula River, upstream of its confluence with theEtowah River, which forms theCoosa River. The house was declared aNational Historic Landmark in 1973.^[2][3]

The Major Ridge Home was purchased for preservation by the Junior League of Rome.^[3] In 1971 it was adapted for use as ahistoric house museum, known as the "Chieftains Museum".^[3] In 2002 the museum was designated by theNational Park Service as an official site on the "CherokeeTrail of TearsNational Historic Trail," which had been established in 1987.

The building was renamed asChieftains Museum / Major Ridge Home in his honor. The museum's exhibits focus on Major Ridge and 19th-century Cherokee life and culture. Ridge's plantation had extended to the river, which he used for travel and transport of his cotton to market. An eight-acre area along the river is now part of Riverside Park in Rome, Georgia.

• Cherokee Nation (19th century)
• History of Rome, Georgia
• List of National Historic Landmarks in Georgia (U.S. state)
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Floyd County, Georgia

Wikimedia Commons has media related toChieftains (Rome, Georgia).

• Chieftains Museum web site
• Chieftains historical marker

• National Historic Landmarks in Georgia (U.S. state)
• Houses completed in 1792
• Historic house museums in Georgia (U.S. state)
• 18th-century Cherokee history
• 19th-century Cherokee history
• Native American history of Georgia (U.S. state)
• Native American museums in Georgia (U.S. state)
• Museums in Rome, Georgia
• Dogtrot architecture in Georgia (U.S. state)
• 1971 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state)
• Museums established in 1971
• Trail of Tears
• Houses in Floyd County, Georgia
• National Register of Historic Places in Floyd County, Georgia
• Cherokee plantations

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