John Ross Interview

Interviewer: Hello Chief Ross. How are you?

Chief John Ross: I am very well, thank you.

Interviewer: Let me start off by asking you about your childhood.

Chief John Ross: I was born in Turkeytown, Alabama to Daniel Ross and Mollie McDonald. Although I was only one-eighth Cherokee; my father had a trading company, so I was immersed with the Cherokee at a very young age. I went to many Cherokee festivals, and played games with the young Cherokee. My father also had strong beliefs for education. He built a school by himself for me and my nine other siblings and hired a teacher for us. After I was finished with general schooling, I went to an academy in South west point Tennessee.

Interviewer: You were also a warrior at a young age, correct?

Chief John Ross: I fought in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend with General Andrew Jackson and almost 1000 Cherokee. Before the battle, a few other Cherokee and I swam in freezing waters to steal the Creek canoes which when then used in the attack against them. I also served as an officer in the War of 1812. Us Cherokee fought for no pay with the Americans, that is partly why we were shocked to be thrown off our homeland.

Interviewer: What was your business life like?

Chief John Ross: I was a fairly successful man, with much of my wealth coming from the crops I grew on my 170 acres of land. I also founded Ross’s Landing which was a trading post on the Tennessee River. In 1836, I was named one of the five wealthiest men in Cherokee Nation.

Interviewer: I see, how did you become a leader?

Chief John Ross: I spent five years as a “political apprentice” as a Cherokee legislator and diplomat, where I learned to negotiate with the Americans and learn the skills necessary to be a leader. Cherokee nation saw the relations with the Americans become more complex and thought that uneducated leaders would not represent the Cherokees as they should. They thought that I would make a good Cherokee leader because I was very well educated and spoke English. Chief Hicks was a leader of the Cherokee before me, he thought that the only thing that I was missing to be a leader of the Cherokee, was knowledge of their traditions. So, Hicks sent me a series of letters, outlining the traditions of the Cherokee. Next, I was sent by the Cherokee to a delegation along with other leaders in Washington to settle disputes over boundaries, white intrusions, and land ownership. After my early success in the delegation, I was elected into the National Council of the Cherokee.

Interviewer: Wow, did you climb any further on the political ladder?

Chief John Ross: Yes actually, that was just the beginning of my career. I then became the president of the National Council. They others thought I fit this position well because I had the political skill to not back down to the offers for our land. I then returned to Washington three years later assuming an even larger role of leadership. I had to clarify the negotiations of the Treaty of 1817 and protest the Cherokee rights for the remaining land. At the delegation, John Calhoun pressured me into giving up large amounts of land in the state of Georgia. So, for the first time in the relationship between the Cherokee and the whites, I petitioned congress.

Interviewer: But how did you become the principal chief of the Cherokee?

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