Treaty of New Echota
The Treaty of New Echota was a treaty which is situated east of the Mississippi River settled the resettlement of the local Indian tribes. The contract was signed ( so-called " Ridge Faction ") in New Echota, Georgia by officials of the United States and some not officially legitimized members of the Cherokee, signed on December 29, 1835 and ratified on 23 May 1836.
Background
The " Ridge Faction " foresaw the increasing population of white settlers in the peripheral areas of their territory that the Cherokee would lose their eastern areas sooner or later and that the resettlement in the West was the only way for the preservation of their nation.
Contract
The contract stipulated the United States, the Cherokee to pay $ 5 million as compensation to cover the cost of their resettlement. Furthermore them equivalent land in the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) promised in exchange for the entire country of the Cherokee east of the Mississippi River.
Objections by John Ross
When the news became public knowledge about the contract, the contract was challenged by the leadership of the Cherokee, especially of Chief John Ross, since they had not agreed to it. There, the U.S. Senate was asked not to ratify this treaty. Nevertheless, the treaty was adopted in May 1836 a single -vote majority. Then Ross wrote a petition calling on the U.S. Congress to declare this contract null and void. He delivered this petition in the spring of 1838 in person in Congress from, with more than 15,000 signatures in the appendix. These were more people than ever listened to the Cherokee nation, which came at the time to a few hundred in their territory.
The resettlement of the Cherokee
The petition was ignored by President Martin Van Buren, who was soon to General Winfield Scott it has delegated to enforce the contract. He should pull all those Cherokee who had the contract not met until then westward to compel by force, even though the contract said that those who wished could stay in the East. Scott's act is commonly referred to as the Trail of Tears.
After the Treaty of New Echota was enforced, the Cherokee of the Mississippi were almost entirely within the territory west relocated (a few bought up farmland in the area, at least, to stay close to their ancestral lands ).
After their arrival in the Indian Territorioum a group of Ross' supporters attacked the " Ridge Faction ", supposedly because the law of the Cherokee banned the sale of Cherokee land to foreign powers. Signatories to the agreement were killed, including Major Ridge, his son John Ridge and Elias Boudinot. The real reason was probably the one that the " Ridge Faction " had spread to much integrated into the political structure of the settlers, which Ross prompting on his arrival to make his authority clear.
References
- John Haywood, AS Colyar. The Civil and Political History of the State of Tennessee from its Earliest Settlement up to the Year 1796 Including the boundaries of the state. Printed for WH Haywood, Nashville TN 1891 ( See also: Overmountain Press, Johnson City TN 1999, ISBN 1-57072 -105- X).
- Karl Klinck, James J. Talman (eds.): The Journal of Major John Norton. Toronto: Champlain Society, 1970 ( Publications of the Champlain Society 46, ISSN 0384-6202 ).
- William G. McLoughlin: Cherokee Renascence in the New Republic. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ 1992, ISBN 0-691-04741-3.
- James Mooney: Myths of the Cherokee and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokee. Charles and Randy Elder- Booksellers, Nashville TN 1982, ISBN 0-918450-22-5.
- John Trotwood Moore, Austin P. Foster: Tennessee, The Volunteer State. From 1769 to 1923. Volume 1, SJ Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, IL, among others in 1923.
- James Gettys McGregor Ramsey: The Annals of Tennessee to the End of the Eighteenth Century. 3rd edition. Judge David Campbell, Chattanooga TN 1926.
- Thurman Wilkins: Cherokee Tragedy. The Story of the Ridge Family and the Decimation of a People. Macmillan Company, New York NY 1970.