biography
| name: |
Ross, John
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| |
originally Coowescoowe
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1790–1866)
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| biography:
| Cherokee leader, born on the Coosa R at Tahnoovayah, Georgia, USA. The son of a part Cherokee mother and Scottish father, he was raised among Christians, and fought in the War of 1812 under Andrew Jackson. He became a member of the Cherokee National Council (1817) and its president (1819–26), during which time he helped draft the Cherokee constitution. In 1823–39 he was principal chief of the E Cherokee nation. In 1828 he argued and won a case brought before the US Supreme Court designed to prevent US encroachments on Cherokee lands, but President Jackson refused to enforce the decision. Although opposed to land cessions, he signed the Treaty of New Echota (1838) and led the Cherokee W on the ‘Trail of Tears’. Once in the Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma), he joined with the W Cherokee and became tribal chief from 1839 until his death. |
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