Major Ridge
Encyclopedia
Major Ridge, The Ridge (c. 1771 – June 22, 1839) (also known as Nunnehidihi, and later Ganundalegi) was a Cherokee
Cherokee
The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...

 Indian
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

 member of the tribal council, a lawmaker, and a leader. He was a veteran of the Chickamauga Wars, the Creek War
Creek War
The Creek War , also known as the Red Stick War and the Creek Civil War, began as a civil war within the Creek nation...

, and the First Seminole War.

Along with Charles R. Hicks
Charles R. Hicks
Charles Renatus Hicks was one of the most important Cherokee leaders in the early 19th century; together with James Vann and Major Ridge, he was one of a triumvirate of younger chiefs urging the tribe to acculturate to European-American ways and supported a Moravian mission school to educate the...

 and James Vann
James Vann
James Vann was an influential Cherokee leader, one of the triumvirate with Major Ridge and Charles R. Hicks, who led the Upper Towns of East Tennessee and North Georgia. He was the son of Wah-Li Vann, a mixed-race Cherokee woman, and a Scots fur trader...

, Ridge was part of the "Cherokee triumvirate," a group of younger chiefs in the early nineteenth century Cherokee Nation
Cherokee Nation (19th century)
The Cherokee Nation of the 19th century —an historic entity —was a legal, autonomous, tribal government in North America existing from 1794–1906. Often referred to simply as The Nation by its inhabitants, it should not be confused with what is known today as the "modern" Cherokee Nation...

 who supported changes in how the people dealt with the United States. He became a wealthy plantation
Plantation
A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...

 owner, slave owner and ferryman.

Ridge signed the controversial Treaty of New Echota
Treaty of New Echota
The Treaty of New Echota was a treaty signed on December 29, 1835, in New Echota, Georgia by officials of the United States government and representatives of a minority Cherokee political faction, known as the Treaty Party...

 of 1835, supported by the minority Treaty Party. It required the remaining Cherokee inhabiting tribal lands in the southeastern United States
Southeastern United States
The Southeastern United States, colloquially referred to as the Southeast, is the eastern portion of the Southern United States. It is one of the most populous regions in the United States of America....

 to cede the lands to the US and relocate to the Indian Territory
Indian Territory
The Indian Territory, also known as the Indian Territories and the Indian Country, was land set aside within the United States for the settlement of American Indians...

. Opponents protested to the US government and negotiated a new treaty the following year. After Indian Removal
Indian Removal
Indian removal was a nineteenth century policy of the government of the United States to relocate Native American tribes living east of the Mississippi River to lands west of the river...

 to what is now Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...

, in 1839 Major Ridge was assassinated by tribal members under Cherokee Blood Law
Blood Law
Blood Law is the practice in traditional American Indian customary law where responsibility for seeing that homicide is punished falls on the clan of the victim. The responsibility for revenge fell to a close family member . In contrast to the Western notion of justice, blood law was based on...

 for alienating the land, as a majority had opposed removal.

Early life

Ridge was born into the Deer clan
Clan
A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clan members may be organized around a founding member or apical ancestor. The kinship-based bonds may be symbolical, whereby the clan shares a "stipulated" common ancestor that is a...

 in the Cherokee town of Great Hiwassee
Great Hiwassee
Great Hiwassee was an important Overhill Cherokee town from the late 17th through the early 19th centuries. It was located on the Hiwassee River in present-day Polk County, Tennessee, on the north bank of the river where modern U.S. Route 411 crosses the river...

, along the Hiwassee River
Hiwassee River
The Hiwassee River has its headwaters on the north slope of Rocky Mountain in Towns County in northern Georgia and flows northward into North Carolina before turning westward into Tennessee, flowing into the Tennessee River a few miles west of State Route 58 in Meigs County, Tennessee...

 (an area later part of Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...

). His father was named Tatsi (sometimes written Dutsi). Tatsi may have at one time been called Aganstata, but this was a common name among the Cherokee, as was the practice of changing one's name, which Tatsi's son did. Ridge's maternal grandfather was a Highland Scot
Scottish Highlands
The Highlands is an historic region of Scotland. The area is sometimes referred to as the "Scottish Highlands". It was culturally distinguishable from the Lowlands from the later Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands...

 immigrant; thus, Ridge was 3/4 Cherokee by ancestry, and one of the many Cherokee of his time with partial European (especially Scottish) heritage.

From his early years, Ridge was taught patience and self-denial, and to endure fatigue. On reaching the proper age, he was initiated as a warrior. Until the end of the Chickamauga wars
Chickamauga wars
The Chickamauga Wars were a series of raids, campaigns, ambushes, minor skirmishes, and several full-scale frontier battles which were a continuation of the Cherokee struggle against encroachment by American frontiersmen from the former British colonies...

, he was known as Nunnehidihi, meaning "He Who Slays The Enemy In His Path" or Pathkiller (not the same as the chief). For most of his later life, he was named Ganundalegi (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."

Young warrior

Besides small raids and other actions during the wars, Nunnehidihi took part in the attack on Gillespie's Station and in Watts' raids (from their encampment on the Flint River) 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 the Holston River
Holston River
The Holston River is a major river system of southwestern Virginia and east Tennessee. The three major forks of the Holston rise in southwestern Virginia and have their confluence near Kingsport, Tennessee. The North Fork flows southwest from Sharon Springs in Bland County, Virginia...

 settlements that had left two men dead.) The subsequent pursuit of his band by the frontiersmen ended at Coyatee (near the mouth of the Little Tennessee River
Little Tennessee River
The Little Tennessee River is a tributary of the Tennessee River, approximately 135 miles long, in the Appalachian Mountains in the southeastern United States.-Geography:...

). Several leading Cherokee
Chickamauga Indian
The Chickamauga or Lower Cherokee, were a band of Cherokee who supported Great Britain at the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War. They were followers of the Cherokee chief Dragging Canoe...

 were killed and others wounded, including Hanging Maw
Hanging Maw
Hanging Maw, or Uskwa'li-gu'ta in Cherokee, was the leading chief of the Overhill Cherokee from 1788 to 1794. They were located in present-day Tennessee...

, the chief headman of the Overhill Towns
Overhill Cherokee
The term Overhill Cherokee refers to the former Cherokee settlements located in what is now Tennessee in the southeastern United States. The name was given by 18th century European traders and explorers who had to cross the Appalachian Mountains to reach these settlements when traveling from...

.

When Nunnehidihi was 21, he was chosen a member of the Cherokee council. He proved a valuable counsellor, and at the second session proposed many useful laws. After the Chickamauga war, he changed his name to Ganundalegi, which the English version simplified as "The Ridge".

In 1807, Chief Doublehead
Doublehead
Doublehead or Incalatanga , was one of the most feared warriors of the Cherokee during the Chickamauga Wars. In 1788, his brother, Old Tassel, was chief of the Cherokee people, but was killed under a truce by frontier rangers. In 1791 Doublehead was among a delegation of Cherokees who visited U.S...

 was bribed by white speculators to cede some Cherokee land. The National Council of the Cherokee Nation determined this to be a capital crime, and directed Ridge, James Vann
James Vann
James Vann was an influential Cherokee leader, one of the triumvirate with Major Ridge and Charles R. Hicks, who led the Upper Towns of East Tennessee and North Georgia. He was the son of Wah-Li Vann, a mixed-race Cherokee woman, and a Scots fur trader...

, and Alexander Sanders to execute Doublehead. (Vann became too drunk to participate. The other two men used guns, knives, and a tomahawk to dispatch the old chief in a schoolmaster's house at the Hiwassee Garrison in Tennessee on August 9, 1807).

Later life

Ridge acquired the title "Major" in 1814, during his service leading the Cherokee alongside General Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States . Based in frontier Tennessee, Jackson was a politician and army general who defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend , and the British at the Battle of New Orleans...

 at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend during the Creek War
Creek War
The Creek War , also known as the Red Stick War and the Creek Civil War, began as a civil war within the Creek nation...

 against the Red Sticks
Red Sticks
Red Sticks is the English term for a traditionalist faction of Creek Indians who led a resistance movement which culminated in the outbreak of the Creek War in 1813....

. He also joined Jackson in the First Seminole War in 1818, leading Cherokee against the Seminole Indians.

After the war, Ridge became a wealthy planter
Planter
Planter may refer to:*A flower pot or box for plants**Jardinière, one such type of pot*A person or object engaged in sowing seeds**Planter , implement towed behind a tractor, used for sowing crops through a field*A coloniser...

 and slave owner
History of slavery in the United States
Slavery in the United States was a form of slave labor which existed as a legal institution in North America for more than a century before the founding of the United States in 1776, and continued mostly in the South until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in...

 of African Americans. Major Ridge married Sehoyah (Susannah Catherine Wickett), daughter of Ar-tah-ku-ni-sti-sky ("Wickett") and Kate Parris, about 1800. He built and was the first owner of the house now used as the Chieftains Museum at the Cherokee town of Head of Coosa (present-day Rome, Georgia
Rome, Georgia
Located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, Rome is the largest city and the county seat of Floyd County, Georgia, United States. It is the principal city of the Rome, Georgia Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Floyd County...

). Major Ridge also owned a profitable ferry and, in partnership with a white man named George Lavender, a trading post.

Cherokee removal

Ridge had long opposed U.S. government proposals for the Cherokee to sell their lands and remove to the West
Indian Removal
Indian removal was a nineteenth century policy of the government of the United States to relocate Native American tribes living east of the Mississippi River to lands west of the river...

. But, Georgia efforts to abolish the Cherokee government and the rapidly expanding European-American settlements caused him to change his mind. Advised by his son John Ridge
John Ridge
John Ridge, born Skah-tle-loh-skee , was from a prominent family of the Cherokee Nation, then located in present-day Georgia. He married Sarah Bird Northup, of a New England family, whom he had met while studying at the Foreign Mission School in Cornwall, Connecticut...

, Major Ridge came to believe the best way to preserve the Cherokee Nation was to get good terms for their lands from the U.S. government before it was too late. On December 29, 1835, Ridge was one of the signers of the Treaty of New Echota
Treaty of New Echota
The Treaty of New Echota was a treaty signed on December 29, 1835, in New Echota, Georgia by officials of the United States government and representatives of a minority Cherokee political faction, known as the Treaty Party...

, which exchanged the Cherokee tribal land east of the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...

 for land in what is now Oklahoma and annuities. The treaty was rejected by the party of Chief John Ross
John Ross (Cherokee chief)
John Ross , also known as Guwisguwi , was Principal Chief of the Cherokee Native American Nation from 1828–1866...

 and a majority of the Cherokee National Council. The US Senate ratified the treaty.

Ridge, his family, and many other Cherokee emigrated to the West
Western United States
.The Western United States, commonly referred to as the American West or simply "the West," traditionally refers to the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. Because the U.S. expanded westward after its founding, the meaning of the West has evolved over time...

 in March of 1837. The treaty had been signed in December 1835 and was amended and ratified in March 1836. The terms of the treaty were strictly enforced. The Cherokee (along with their slaves) who remained on tribal lands in the East
Eastern United States
The Eastern United States, the American East, or simply the East is traditionally defined as the states east of the Mississippi River. The first two tiers of states west of the Mississippi have traditionally been considered part of the West, but can be included in the East today; usually in...

 were forcibly rounded up by the U.S. government after 1838. Those remnants were the last people to make the journey popularly known as the "Trail of Tears
Trail of Tears
The Trail of Tears is a name given to the forced relocation and movement of Native American nations from southeastern parts of the United States following the Indian Removal Act of 1830...

".

Assassination

In the West, the Ross faction blamed Ridge and the other signers of the Treaty of New Echota for the crime of alienating communal land and for the hardships of removal. In June 1839, Cherokees of the Ross faction assassinated
Blood Law
Blood Law is the practice in traditional American Indian customary law where responsibility for seeing that homicide is punished falls on the clan of the victim. The responsibility for revenge fell to a close family member . In contrast to the Western notion of justice, blood law was based on...

 Major Ridge, his son John, and nephew Elias Boudinot
Elias Boudinot (Cherokee)
Elias Boudinot , was a member of an important Cherokee family in present-day Georgia. They believed that rapid acculturation was critical to Cherokee survival. In 1828 Boudinot became the editor of the Cherokee Phoenix, which was published in Cherokee and English...

, to remove them as political rivals and to intimidate the political establishment of the Old Settlers, which the Ridge faction had joined. The Old Settlers were Cherokee who had gone to the West before removal, about 1818.

Among Ridge's killers was Bird Doublehead, whose father Chief Doublehead had been slain by Major Ridge. Another killer was Bird's half-brother, James Foreman. In 1842 Stand Watie
Stand Watie
Stand Watie , also known as Standhope Uwatie, Degataga , meaning “stand firm”), and Isaac S. Watie, was a leader of the Cherokee Nation and a brigadier general of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War...

 killed Foreman. Watie was Ridge's nephew and a brother of Elias Boudinot
Elias Boudinot
Elias Boudinot was a lawyer and statesman from Elizabeth, New Jersey who was a delegate to the Continental Congress and a U.S. Congressman for New Jersey...

, who had also been assassinated by Foreman for signing the Treaty of Echota. In 1839 he had been targeted for assassination but escaped. During the Civil War, he served as Principal Chief of pro-Confederate Cherokees after Ross and the Union-supporters withdrew to another location. He also served as a Confederate
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...

 general and was the last to surrender to Union troops.

Burial

Ridge and his son are buried, along with Stand Watie, in Polson Cemetery in Delaware County, Oklahoma
Delaware County, Oklahoma
Delaware County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of 2000, the population was 37,077 and the newest population estimate is 45,000. Its county seat is Jay. The county was named for the Delaware Indians resettled in what was then Indian Territory in the 1830s. .Delaware County...

.

Media

Ridge's life and the Trail of Tears are dramatized in Episode 3 of the Ric Burns
Ric Burns
Ric Burns is an American documentary filmmaker and writer. He has written, directed and produced historical documentaries for nearly 20 years, beginning with his collaboration on the celebrated PBS series The Civil War , which he produced with his older brother Ken Burns and wrote with Geoffrey C...

/American Experience
American Experience
American Experience is a television program airing on the Public Broadcasting Service Public television stations in the United States. The program airs documentaries, many of which have won awards, about important or interesting events and people in American history...

 documentary, We Shall Remain
We Shall Remain (documentary)
We Shall Remain is a five-part, 7.5 hour documentary series about the history of Native Americans spanning the 1600s to the 1900s. It was a collaborative effort with several different directors, writers and producers working on each episode, including directors Chris Eyre, Ric Burns and Stanley...

.

See also

  • Chieftains Museum (Major Ridge Home), present-day Rome, Georgia
  • Timeline of Cherokee removal
    Timeline of Cherokee removal
    This is a timeline of events leading up to and extending away from the Treaty of New Echota from the time of first contact to the treaty of reunion after the American Civil War.-1540–1775:...


Sources

  • Arbuckle, Gen Matthew: "Intelligence report and correspondence concerning unrest in Cherokee Nation," Congressional Serial Set 365, 26th Congress, House Document 129 .
  • Brown, John P, Old Frontiers: The Story of the Cherokee Indians from Earliest Times to the Date of Their Removal to the West, 1838. Southern Publishers, Kingsport, Tn, 1938 (Arno Press Reprint Edition, New York, 1971).
  • Dale, Edwards Everett. Cherokee Cavaliers; Forty Years of Cherokee History as Told in the Correspondences of the Ridge-Watie-Boudinot Family. Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 1939.
  • Ehle, John. Trail of Tears: The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation. New York: Doubleday, 1988. ISBN 0-385-23953-X.
  • Wilkins, Thurman. Cherokee Tragedy. (New York: Macmillan Company, 1970).


External links

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