John Ross (3 October 1790-1 August 1866) was the principal chief of the Cherokee from 1828 to 1866, preceding William P. Ross. He was often compared to Moses, leading his people during an era of forced relocation. Ross, the leader of the Cherokee National Party, supported the assimilation of his people into the white culture, but rejected Indian removal.
Biography[]
John Ross was born in Turkeytown, Alabama in 1790 to a Scottish father and a Cherokee mother (also of Scottish descent). He grew up bilingual and bicultural, and he became an Indian agent in 1811 and commanded a Cherokee regiment of the US Army during the War of 1812. After the war, he became a Tennessee businessman and politician, and he served on a mission to Washington DC in 1816. He frequently fought against white attempts to remove the Cherokee to the American West, and he became chief in 1828. He led the Cherokee National Party, which rejected removal, and he was unable to unite the tribe after they were removed to the Indian Territory. During the American Civil War, his rival Stand Watie led the tribe into an alliance with the Confederacy, and Ross returned to lead the tribe after the war's end. He died in 1866.