"I have signed my own death warrant!": Major Ridge of the Cherokee

What to do about encroaching White settlement was a never-ending question for Native leaders.  Some believed in co-existence, in giving up land and adopting European ways in an effort to co-exist and preserve something for their own people.  Others were for resistance.  Often, these stances changed over time, as circumstances changed.  And, almost always, without fail, no matter what these men tried to do or the motive behind their actions, it ended up in tragedy.

Major Ridge (c 1771-1839), was born in the Cherokee town of Great Hiwassee, in present-day Tennessee.  His mother was Cherokee and Scottish, his father was most likely full-blooded Cherokee.  Like many mixed-race young men of that era, he took his status from his mother's clan, the Deer Clan and received his warrior's training from the men of her family.  Because her father had returned to Scotland, Ridge did not receive what was called at that time an English Education, though he later learned the language, but could not write it.  There was plenty for a young warrior to do during the Cherokee-American Wars, 1775-1795.  Ridge's name as a young man, Nunnehidihi meant, he kills the enemy in his path, shortened to Pathkiller.  He is sometimes known as Pathkiller II to distinguish him from a Cherokee leader with the same name.  Later, Ridge received the name Ganundalegi, meaning, he walks along a high mountain.  This was shortened into English as, The Ridge, which is how many White men knew him. 

In time Ridge married a woman named Sehoya or Susanna Catherine Wickett, a mixed-race Cherokee, and had two children, John and Sarah.  He determined that John would receive a full education and sent him to the Foreign Missionary Society school in Connecticut.  John's cousin and Ridge's nephew Elias Boudinot, whom we've already met, was also a student there.  In this, Ridge was not alone.  Along with two other prominent leaders of the time, Charles R. Hicks and James Vann, also of mixed-race, he believed that the young men needed to be able to communicate with and function in White society if their people were to be successful in co-existing with White Americans.  In time, Ridge rose to prominence, becoming a planter, businessman and owning a ferry, a lucrative income in those days.  He served as a mentor to a younger man, John Ross, though the two would part ways in later years. 

Ridge attained a seat on the Cherokee National Council and was directed to be part of the party that executed another Cherokee leader, Doublehead, who had ceded some land without the Council's permission, something Ridge knew to be a capital offense.  The killing of Doublehead, along with other events, would led to a terrible blood feud that would follow the Cherokee to Oklahoma and fester until the Civil War created tension of its own.  Ridge opposed Tecumseh's Revolt (1811-1813).  Being present when Tecumseh made a speech to leaders in a Creek town, Ridge stepped across the Shawnee's path and warned him that if he came into Cherokee Country and tried to spread his message there, Ridge would kill him personally.  He later led Cherokee warriors under Andrew Jackson during the Creek War and the New Orleans campaign, earning the military rank of Major, which became part of his name in White reference.

After returning from the War of 1812, Ridge moved his family to present-day Rome, Georgia, where his home still stands.  In addition to his plantation and ferry business, he went into partnership with a White man dealing in Calico and other fabrics, another lucrative trade item.  For years, as the federal government tried to induce the Cherokee to part with more land, Ridge was one of those who stood firm.  However, as Georgia officials became more restrictive in their laws toward the Cherokee, such as disallowing Whites to work for Native or forbidding Whites to enter into business dealing with Natives, John Ridge persuaded his father that perhaps giving up the lands in the east and striking their best deal for land out west was the better option.  Hoping to make the best terms possible, Ridge became a leader of what was known as the Treaty Party.  He was one of those who signed the Treaty of New Echota in December, 1835, though he knew what it would mean.  "I have signed my own death warrant," he said.

As Cherokee families packed up and prepared to leave, White officials in Georgia didn't bother to wait, auctioning off Cherokee property in lotteries and seizing livestock and other property.  Ridge moved his family west in 1837, traveling by flatboat and steamer to Honey Creek on the Arkansas, Missouri border.  This was outside of the Cherokee Nation boundary, but Ridge knew he was no longer welcome among his people.  Too many Cherokee, over 4,000 had died in the trek known as the Trail of Tears and many believed that Ridge, as leader of the Treaty Party, should pay with his life as Doublehead had.  In June, 1839, Major Ridge, his son John, their nephew Elias, and Ridge's other nephew Stand Watie were ambushed.  Only Watie escaped, though severely injured.  More on him and this feud later. 

Ridge's home in Georgia is now a museum on the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail.  Ken Burns included Ridge's life in a documentary called "We Shall Remain", part of his American Experience series.