Major Ridge | |
|---|---|
| ᎦᏅᏓᏞᎩ (Cherokee) | |
 1834 portrait of Major Ridge byCharles Bird King, inHistory of the Indian Tribes of North America. | |
| Born | 1771, exact date unknown Great Hiwassee, present-dayTennessee |
| Died | June 22, 1839 (aged 67 or 68) White Rock Creek, Little Branch Creek near White Rock Cemetery, Washington County, AR |
| Cause of death | Assassination |
| Citizenship | Cherokee Nation (1794–1907) |
| Occupation | Cherokee Leader |
| Spouse(s) | Sehoyah (Susannah Catherine Wickett) Kate Parris |
| Children | John Ridge Sarah (Sally) Ridge |
The Ridge, later known asMajor Ridge (c. 1771 – 22 June 1839; known inCherokee asNunnehidihi, and laterGanundalegi [ᎦᏅᏓᏞᎩ][1]) was aCherokee leader, a member of thetribal council, and a lawmaker. As a warrior, he fought in theCherokee–American wars against American frontiersmen. Later, Major Ridge led the Cherokee in alliances with GeneralAndrew Jackson and the United States in theCreek andSeminole wars of the early 19th century.
Along withCharles R. Hicks andJames Vann, Ridge was part of the "Cherokee triumvirate", a group of rising younger chiefs in the early nineteenth-centuryCherokee Nation who supported acculturation and other changes in how the people dealt with the United States. All identified as Cherokee; they were ofmixed race, though Ridge was nearly full blood, and had extensive personal and professional experience and understanding of the European-American culture surrounding the Cherokee homeland. Ridge became a wealthyplanter, andferryman in Georgia. Like many Cherokee leaders, including John Ross with whom he would come to greatly disagree with on how the Cherokee tribe should respond the United States’ passage of theIndian Removal Act of 1830, Ridge had become a wealthy plantation andslave owner.
Under increasing pressure for removal from the federal government, Ridge and others of the Treaty Party signed the controversialTreaty of New Echota of 1835. They believed removal was inevitable and tried to protect Cherokee rights in the process. It required the Cherokee to cede their remaining lands in the Southeast to the US and to relocate toIndian Territory west of the Mississippi River. Opponents strongly protested to the US government and negotiated a new treaty the following year, but were still forced to accept removal. Blamed for the ceding of communal land and the deaths of theTrail of Tears, Ridge was assassinated in 1839 by members of the Ross faction who believed they were acting in accordance with the Cherokee Blood Law.
Ridge was born about 1772 into the Deerclan of his mother,Oganotota (O-go-nuh-to-tua), a Scots-Cherokee woman, in the Cherokee town ofGreat Hiwassee, along theHiwassee River (an area later part ofTennessee).[2] His father was believed to be full-blood Cherokee. Ridge's maternal grandfather was a Scots trader who returned to Europe and left a Cherokee wife and daughter behind in America.[3]
Ridge was the third son born, but the first to survive to adulthood. He had two younger brothers, one of whom became known asDavid Uwatie (father ofStand Watie). From his early years, Ridge was taught patience and self-denial, and to endure fatigue. On reaching the proper age, he was initiated as awarrior.[4] The Cherokee believed that a man's achievements as a warrior were a sign of his spiritual power and part of his leadership.
Until the end of the Cherokee – American wars, the young man was known asNunnehidihi, meaning "He Who Slays The Enemy In His Path"[3] or "The Pathkiller" (not the same as another chief of the same name).[which?] Later Ridge was namedGanundalegi (other spellings include Ca-Nun-Tah-Cla-Kee, Ca-Nun-Ta-Cla-Gee, and Ka-Nun-Tah-Kla-Gee), meaning "The Man Who Walks On The Mountain Top Ridge". White men knew him by the simplified English name, "The Ridge".[5]
In 1792, Ridge marriedSehoya, also known as Suzannah Catherine Wickett, a mixed-blood Cherokee of the Wild Potatoclan.[6] Her name was also spelled Sehoyah; she was the daughter of Kate Parris andAr-tah-ku-ni-sti-sky ("Wickett"). The couple had several children, includingJohn Ridge. They sent him in 1819 as a young man toCornwall, Connecticut, to be educated in European-American classical studies at theForeign Mission School.
After the Cherokee–American wars, the Ridges lived in the Cherokee town of Oothcaloga. (The modern city ofCalhoun, Georgia, developed near here.) About 1819, they moved near the Cherokee town of Chatuga (modern-dayRome) at the confluence of theOostanaula andEtowah rivers, which forms theCoosa River. Ridge acquired 223 acres that fronted on the Oostanaula River, upstream of the confluence.[7] Starting with a log dogtrot house on the property, Ridge expanded the house to a two-story white frame house with extensions on either end.[7] Like European-American planters, Ridge used enslaved African Americans to work the cotton fields on his plantation. Nearby, Ridge's protégéJohn Ross had established his own home and plantation.
Ridge had no formal education and could neither read nor write. But he was known as a noted orator and dynamic speaker. Ridge appreciated the value of education and believed that the Cherokee must learn to communicate with European Americans and to understand their ways in order to survive as a nation. He sent his son John to a mission boarding school at Springhill.
In addition to participating in small raids and other actions,Nunnehidihi took part in the attack on Gillespie's Station and in Watts' raids in the winter of 1788–1789; the attack on Buchanan's Station in 1792; the campaign against the settlements of Upper East Tennessee in 1793 (that resulted in the massacre and destruction of Cavett's Station); and the so-called "Battle of Hightower" at Etowah. (Before the 1793 campaigns, he had taken part in a horse-stealing raid against theHolston River settlements, where two European-American pioneers were killed.)
At age 21,Nunnehidihi was chosen as a member of the Cherokee Council. He proved a valuable counselor, and at the second session proposed many useful laws.[4] After the Cherokee–American wars, he changed his name toGanundalegi, which in English was translated as "He Who Walks On The Ridge".
With the massacre at Cavett's Station, a personal feud developed between The Ridge andChief Doublehead. The latter had promised to spare the post if the three white men who lived there surrendered. But, after the men agreed to surrender, Doublehead changed his mind and ordered that all the inhabitants be killed, including thirteen women and children. This act disgusted The Ridge, who felt it dishonored the tribe.[8] Frontiersmen pursued Ridge's band, catching them at Coyatee (near the mouth of theLittle Tennessee River). They killed several leadingChickamauga Cherokee and wounded others, includingHanging Maw, the chief headman of theOverhill Towns.
In 1807, Doublehead was bribed by white speculators tocede some Cherokee communal land without approval by the Cherokee National Council. The Council determined this to be acapital crime against the nation, and directed Ridge,James Vann, and Alexander Sanders to execute Doublehead. (Vann became too drunk to participate. The other two men used guns, knives, and a tomahawk to kill the old chief on August 9, 1807, at the Hiwassee Garrison in Tennessee).[9]
Shortly before the War of 1812, Shawnee chiefTecumseh and his brother,Tenskawatawa (also called "The Prophet"), came south to recruit other tribes to unite and together prevent the sale of their lands to white immigrants. Tecumseh urged his listeners to reject subservience to the United States, reject the white man's agrarian lifestyle, return to their traditional lifestyles, and take up weapons to defend their lands. Ridge attended as an observer when Tecumseh spoke to theMuscogee (Creek) living nearby. Ridge was said to have confronted Tecumseh after the meeting and warned that he would kill the chief if he tried to spread that message to the Cherokee.[10]
Ridge acquired the title "Major" in 1814, during his service leading the Cherokee alongside the United States GeneralAndrew Jackson at theBattle of Horseshoe Bend during theCreek War against theRed Sticks. This was a civil war within the Creek Nation between the Upper Towns and Lower Towns, who differed in their interaction with European Americans versus holding on to tradition. Ridge had joined the campaign as an unofficial militia lieutenant. (Jackson was involved with the largerWar of 1812 against Great Britain.) Ridge used Major as his first name for the rest of his life.[11] He also served with Jackson in theFirst Seminole War in 1818, leading Cherokee warriors on behalf of the US government against theSeminole Indians in Florida. His war achievements added to his stature among the Cherokee.
After the war, Ridge moved his family to the Cherokee town of Head of Coosa (present-dayRome, Georgia). He developed aplantation, owned 30African-American slaves as laborers, and became a wealthy planter. The plantation consisted of nearly three hundred cleared acres; its main cash crops were corn, tobacco, and cotton. He built his house. Major Ridge also developed and owned a profitable ferry that carried wagons and their teams across theOostanuaula River. As another business, Ridge founded a trading post in partnership with George Lavender, a white man; the post provided staples and luxury European-American goods such as calico and silk fabrics.[12]
In 1816, Andrew Jackson tried to persuade theChickasaw and Cherokee nations to sell their lands in the Southeast and move west of the Mississippi River. He was rebuffed by most of the Cherokee chiefs at a council in Mississippi. They told him that he must meet with ChiefPathkiller at a Cherokee council inTurkeytown.[13]
Ridge had long opposed U.S. government proposals for the Cherokee to sell their lands andremove to the West. But, Georgia efforts to suppress the Cherokee government and the pressure of rapidly expanding European-American settlements caused him to change his mind. Advised by his sonJohn Ridge, Major Ridge came to believe the best way to preserve the Cherokee Nation was to get good terms from the U.S. government and preserve their rights inIndian Territory.
On December 29, 1835, Ridge made his mark on theTreaty of New Echota, which ceded the remainder of Cherokee tribal land east of theMississippi River for land in Indian Territory, to be supplemented by the payment of annuities for a period of time, plus support from the government in terms of supplies, tools and food. The tribe was bitterly divided over this decision. Reportedly, Ridge said as he finished, "I have signed my death warrant."[14]
The National Party of ChiefJohn Ross and a majority of the Cherokee National Council rejected the treaty, but it was ratified by theUS Senate. The next year Ross negotiated changes with the US government, but essentially Cherokee removal was confirmed.
Ridge, his family, and many other Cherokee emigrated to theWest in March 1837. The treaty had been signed in December 1835 and was amended and ratified in March 1836. Georgia illegally put Cherokee lands in a lottery and auctioned them off even before the Cherokee removal date; settlers started arriving and squatting on Cherokee-occupied land. Georgia supported the settlers against the Cherokee. After 1838, the US government forcibly rounded up the remaining Cherokee (along with their slaves) on tribal lands. They were the last of the Five Civilized Tribes of the Southeast to make the journey that became known as the "Trail of Tears", during which nearly 4,000 Cherokee died.[a]
Accompanied by his wife, daughter, and one of son John's children, Major Ridge traveled by flatboat and steamer to a place in Indian Territory called Honey Creek, near the Arkansas-Missouri Border. The land Ridge had chosen was fifty miles from the territory assigned to the Cherokee. He no longer wished to live among his people. His son John Ridge and Major Ridge's cousinElias Boudinot followed six months later.[16]
In the West, the Ross faction blamed Ridge and the other signers of the Treaty of New Echota for the 4,000 deaths along the trail in theRemoval, as well as the loss of communal lands, which was held to be a capital crime. In June 1839, Major Ridge and nephewElias Boudinot, were executed in accordance with the CherokeeBlood Law by members of the Ross faction. Ridge was killed while riding along a road,[17] a group of five men waited with rifles in bushes under trees firing several gunshots at him, with five bullets piercing his head and body leaving the body slumped in saddle.[18]
The Ross faction also tried to kill Ridge's nephewStand Watie, but he survived. Other Treaty Party members were later killed, starting a wave of violence within the nation.[19]
Among Ridge's killers was Bird Doublehead. Ridge had killed his father Chief Doublehead under orders by the Cherokee National Council. Another of his killers was James Foreman, Bird's half-brother. In 1842 Stand Watie, Ridge's nephew, killed Foreman. In 1845 opponents killed his younger brother, Thomas Watie. The cycle of retaliatory violence within the Cherokee resulted in the deaths of all the other Watie family males of that generation. Stand Watie survived the violence of the 1840s, when the Cherokee conflict descended into virtual civil war. In the 1850s, Watie was tried in Arkansas for Foreman's murder, but he was acquitted on grounds of self-defense; he was defended by his brotherElias Cornelius Boudinot.
Tribal divisions were exacerbated by the outbreak of theAmerican Civil War. Many Cherokee supported the Confederacy, despite the Southern governments having pushed them out. The Confederacy officials now said they would recognize an independent Indian state if successful in creating an independent nation. Stand Watie served as Principal Chief (1862-1866) of the pro-Confederate Cherokee after Ross and many Union-supporters withdrew to another location. He served as aConfederate general and was the last to surrender to Union troops.[20]
Ridge and his son John are buried in Polson Cemetery inDelaware County, Oklahoma. After his nephew Stand Watie died later of natural causes, he was buried near them.[21]
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