Mines: The storm clouds gather over the Cherokee Nation

If Cherokee Principal Chief John Ross hoped that his people and their land would be saved from removal and occupation through legal routes available to citizens, he found that hope evaporating quickly. Even within the ranks of the Cherokee, there were leaders who felt that removal was inevitable and that they should take the monies offered and simply withdraw from the controversy. Ross, instead, clung to the Cherokee's historic position, believing that it was the will of their "fathers;" Cherokee lands would never be for sale.

President Jackson, seizing on the division within the Cherokee nation, attempted to remove Ross from the conversation, using legal maneuvers and the strategic use of monies. He offered to pay the Cherokee Nation $2.5 million for their lands or $3 million if they would pay to transport themselves to the Oklahoma territory. While the offer amounted to almost 50 cents per acre, Ross realized that the lands were far more valuable, even as he opposed the sale.

When Major John Ridge sent a letter to Ross endorsing the move by saying " it is admitted that we can't be a nation here, I hope we shall attempt to establish it somewhere else! Where, the wisdom of the nation must try to find," Ross began to fear that his people had grown weary of the uncertainty and the fight. Even Alexis de Tocqueville, who traveled around the United States in his exploration of "Democracy in the New World," noted that "if by chance an Indian nation can no longer live within its territory, the Americans offer a fraternal hand to lead the natives off to die somewhere other than in the land of their fathers To destroy human beings with greater respect for the laws of humanity would be impossible."

The great mass of the Cherokee people remained loyal to their chief but the powerful voices within the Cherokee Nation, including Ridge, Elias Boudinot, editor of the Cherokee Phoenix and even Ross's own brother, argued that they could not win the fight.

Ross felt the pressure to launch a final effort to save his peoples' lands. In early 1834, he journeyed once more to Washington, D.C. Upon arrival, he sent President Jackson a letter. "The undersigned Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, in behalf of himself and the Cherokee delegation, present their respects to the President of the United States and beg leave to inform him that they are desirous to have an interview with him, for the purpose of having a free and full conversation Jno. Ross." The president agreed to see the delegation two days later, and an unwell Jackson received them on Feb. 5.

Ross and the Cherokee appealed for intervention in Georgia's attempt to "remove them from their lands," and Jackson once again explained that he was "powerless." After a few moments of conversation and refreshments, he dismissed them. When an opposition Cherokee delegation gained an audience with the president only days later and offered to work with him in executing a "removal solution," Jackson knew Ross had a rebellion brewing among his own people and was no longer the voice of a unified opposition.

Ross sent one more carefully and beautifully written letter to the president, appealing to times spent fighting together.

"Twenty years have now elapsed since we participated with you in the toils and dangers of war It is in the hour of such times that the heart of man can be truly tested and correctly judged. We were your friends Now in these days of profound peace, why should the gallant soldiers which in times of war walked hand in hand thro' blood and carnage, be not still friends? We answer that we are yet your friends."

He then offered a solution that far exceeded the negotiating power authorized by the Cherokee Legislature: "Will you agree to enter into an arrangement on the basis of the Cherokees becoming prospectively citizens of the United States provided the Nation will cede to the United States a portion of its territory for the use of Georgia? And will you agree to have the laws and treaties executed and enforced ?"

Was John Ross simply stalling as he contemplated a different solution or was he looking ahead to the end of Jackson's presidency? Either way, the storm clouds darkened.

Linda Moss Mines is the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Historian, a member of the Tennessee Historical Commission and the Regent, Chief John Ross Chapter, NSDAR.