Major Ridge

Major Ridge drawn by Charles Bird King (1834)

Major Ridge (* around 1771 in Great Hiwassee , Tennessee , † June 22, 1839 in Oklahoma ), who was also known under the name Pathkiller II , was a warrior and important chief of the Cherokee Indian people . Together with Charles R. Hicks he was patronized by James Vann , these three men are also known as the "Cherokee Triumvirate". Ridge was one of the signatories of the Treaty of New Echota and leader of the so-called "Treaty Party" that the Indian resettlement into Indian Territory advocated.

Origin and naming

Ridge was born in the Cherokee village of Great Hiwassee on the banks of the Hiwassee River in what is now Tennessee as a member of the Deer Clan. His father was Tatsi, another spelling Dutsi, from which it is assumed that he was previously called Aganstata, but a common name among the Cherokee. Ridge's grandfather was a Scot from the Highlands , so like many of his tribe members, Ridge had some European ancestors.

For the longest time in his life Ridge was named Ganundalegi ( cherokee for "The man who walks on top of the mountain"), other spellings Ca-Nun-Tah-Cla-Kee, Ca-Nun-Ta-Cla-Gee and Ka-Nun-Tah-Kla-Gee. By the end of Chickamaugakrieges he was Nunnehidihi called, which means something like "He who kills enemies in its path" that into English as Pathkiller was translated. Another well-known chief also bears this name, which is why Ridge is also referred to as "Pathkiller II".

Cherokee warriors

During the wars he took part in the attacks on Gillespie's station and the Watts raids on the Flint River camps in the winter of 1788/1789, the attack on Buchanan's station in 1792 and the campaign against the settlements in East Tennessee in 1793 that began with the The massacre at Cavett's Station in Etowah ended and became known as the "Battle of Hightower". Prior to the 1793 campaign, he was involved in a series of raids designed to steal horses from the Holston River settlements , which resulted in two deaths. The subsequent pursuit of his troops ended in Coyatee near the mouth of the Little Tennessee River with the death and wounding of a number of leading Cherokee, including Hanging Maw , the chief of the Overhill settlements, by the pursuers.

After the war he changed his name to "The Ridge" (English for mountain ridge ), the title "Major" he received in 1814 when he led the Cherokee under Andrew Jackson in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in the Creek War . He also supported Jackson in his fight against the Seminoles during the First Seminole War . After the war, he settled in Rome , Georgia and married Sehoyah, whose English name was Susannah Catherine Wickett, around 1800, their daughter Ar-tah-ku-ni-sti-sky and Kate Parris. He became a wealthy plantation owner and slave owner . His former home in Rome has been a museum since 1971 and was protected under the name " Chieftains (Major Ridge Home) " in 1973 as a National Historic Landmark of the United States.

Cherokee eviction

Ridge has long opposed the US government's propaganda for the relocation of Indians to Indian Territory to the west. The white settlers' hunger for land and the increasing repression of the Cherokee by the Georgian government changed his mind. Major Ridge, influenced by his son John Ridge , believed that the best way to preserve the Cherokee nation was to negotiate early with the government and get rid of the tribal lands on good terms before it was too late.

On December 22, 1835, Ridge was among the signatories of the New Echota Treaty, which traded the Cherokee land east of the Mississippi River for new settlement areas in what is now Oklahoma . The treaty was rejected by an important leader and opponent of resettlement, John Ross , and the majority of the Cherokee council in the tribal capital of New Echota, as well as by the population. Despite their opposition, the treaty was ratified by the United States Senate .

Shortly after the treaty was signed, Ridge emigrated to the West with his family and supporters of the Treaty Party. The Cherokee who refused to resettle were forcibly rounded up under the terms of the treaty and deported in the Path of Tears in 1838 .

Assassination of Ridge

In the west, Ridge and the other signatories to the treaty were seen by Ross and his followers as the cause of the great losses in the Path of Tears. In June 1839, Ridge, his son John and his nephew Elias Boudinot were murdered by the followers of John Ross. Ridge's nephew Stand Watie , who later became the Confederate general during the Civil War , was also to be killed. He escaped, however, and after the retreat of John Ross and the Loyalists, he served as the nation's supreme leader of the Cherokee Nation.

Ridge and his son were buried in Polson Cemetery in Delaware County , Oklahoma.

literature

• Edwards Everett Dale: Cherokee Cavaliers; Forty Years of Cherokee History as Told in the Correspondences of the Ridge-Watie-Boudinot Family . University of Oklahoma Press, 1939.
• John Ehle: Trail of Tears: The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation . Doubleday 1988, ISBN 0-385-23953-X .
• Thurman Wilkins: Cherokee Tragedy: The Ridge Family and the Decimation of a People. 2nd Edition. University of Oklahoma Press, 1989, ISBN 0806121882 .

Web links

• About North Georgia: Major Ridge (Engl.)
• Georgia Encyclopedia: Major Ridge (Engl.)