MAJOR RIDGE
The treaty turned over the Cherokee Tribal Lands and agreed that the tribe would relocate to Oklahoma and obtain new lands there. The vast majority of the Cherokee chose to reject this treaty and insist that the Federal Government adhere to the Previous Treaty that was in force and maintain the Cherokee on their traditional land in the East. Ridge and some of his group made a lot of money and obtained much attention from the whites pushing for removal—President Andrew Jackson for example. But Jackson, using soldiers and force, pushed the Cherokee on the “Trail of Tears” at gun and bayonet point. After the Cherokee had arrived in Oklahoma, and Ridge and his family had set up in rather elegant quarters, he was assassinated by the other Cherokee’s after having been found guilty under traditional Cherokee laws.
The Supreme Court had ruled that Georgia and the other Southern States and the Federal Government could not remove the Cherokee from their land. However, President Jackson was going to force them off their very well developed farms and estates despite the Supreme Court ruling. Ridge and a few others were bribed by the whites to get a self- appointed group of Cherokee to “sell” their land in the South East to white syndicates, Ridge and his fellows then were given the choicest land in Oklahoma which was far inferior to the land that they had left.
Major Ridge, The Ridge (and sometimes Pathkiller II) (also known as Nunnehidihi, and later Ganundalegi) was a Cherokee leader, a member of the tribal council, and a lawmaker. As a warrior, he fought in the Cherokee–American wars against American frontiersmen. Later, Major Ridge led the Cherokee in alliances with General Andrew Jackson and the United States in the Creek and Seminole wars of the early 19th century.
