Timeline of Cherokee Removal

This outline is culled from my larger and more encompassing “Timeline of Cherokee History”, including only those parts relevant or leading up to the Cherokee Removal of 1838-1839.  The inspiration for this separate, more focused article came from the growth of concentration camps for undocumented refugees at the southern U.S. border.

1721 – Treaty with the province of South Carolina ceding land between the Santee, Saluda, and Edisto Rivers.  

After this, the first reported band of Cherokee emigres cross the Mississippi River supposedly led by a warrior named Dangerous Man (Yunwiusgaseti).  One group of this band is supposed to have made it to the Rocky Mountains and survived into the 19th century.  It was in pursuit of this band that Sequoyah later left Indian Territory and disappeared into Mexico.

1754–1763 – The French and Indian War.  In the beginning, the Cherokee are allies of the British, but ill treatment and failure of supplies and pay lead nearly all the warriors to return to their homes.

1755 – Treaty with South Carolina ceding land between the Wateree and Santee Rivers.

1758–1761 – The Anglo-Cherokee War, in which the Cherokee fought both South Carolina and Virginia.

1761 - Treaty of Long Island-on-the-Holston with the Colony of Virginia, ending the war between the colony and the Cherokee.

1762 - Treaty of Charlestown with the Colony of South Carolina, ending the war between the colony and the Cherokee.

1763 – Treaty of Paris, ending the French and Indian War.

7 October 1763 – George III issues the Royal Proclamation of 1763 established a boundary line along the crest of the Appalachian Mountains and the Ogeechee River beyond which colonists are forbidden to settle, creating the Indian Reserve.

October 1768 – Treaty of Hard Labour with John Stuart, British Superintendent for Southern Indian Affairs, ceding land in southwestern Virginia.

1770 – Treaty of Lochaber with Stuart ceding land in Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky.

1772 – Treaty with Virginia ceding land in Virginia and eastern Kentucky; the Watauga Lease.

1773 – Treaty of Augusta ceding over two million acres (8,000 km²) to the province of Georgia.

1775 – Treaty of Sycamore Shoals with the Transylvania Company.

A group of Cherokee defeats Spanish miners in the Mine La Motte area of Missouri.

1775-1795 – The Cherokee-American Wars.  These were intertwined with three larger conflicts: the Revolution, in which the Cherokee fought as allies of the British; the Northwest Indian War, in which the Cherokee fought as allies and founding members of the Western Confederacy under British sponsorship; and the Indian Wars of the Old Southwest, fought after the Revolution ended, mostly sponsored by the Spanish.  They worked most closely with the Shawnee overall and in the north, and in the south most closely with the Creek.

1775–1783 – The American Revolution.

1776 – The Cherokee War.  The Cherokee of all five sections attack the colonies/states of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.  In the subsequent counterattack, the Cherokee suffer such devastation that no large scale action from any native force occurs until the focus of the war and the British effort swings south.

1777 – Treaty of DeWitts’ Corner with South Carolina and Georgia ceding the lands of the Lower Towns, and the Treaty of Fort Henry with Virginia and North Carolina, confirming the Watauga concessions. As a result, Cherokee of the Lower Towns migrate westward into North Georgia, while Dragging Canoe removes southwestward leading a large group of like-minded Cherokee, mostly from the Overhill Towns, to the Chickamauga country, what is now the Chattanooga area in Southeast Tennessee.

1782 – A group of Cherokee under Kunagadoga, or Standing Turkey, receives permission to emigrate west of the Mississippi from the governor of Spanish Louisiana, into what is later Southeast Missouri.

Dragging Canoe leads his people further westward and southwestward into what becomes known as the Five Lower Towns area, eventually penetrating Northeast Alabama as more Cherokee refugees migrate to the area.

1783-1796 – The Indian Wars of the Old Southwest, primarily involving the Cherokee and the Muscogee with some participation of the Shawnee, against the states of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and the territories of those states in the Overmountain region and Cumberland Basin.

1783 – Treaty of Paris ending the American Revolution, and, with it, open British sponsorship of resistance in the Old Southwest.

In the Treaty of Long Swamp Creek between the Cherokee and the State of Georgia, the former are forced to cede most of the land between the Savannah and Chattahoochee Rivers.

1785-1795 – Northwest Indian War, in which the members of the Western Confederacy, including the Cherokee who are founding members, fight against encroachment by invaders from the new United States.

1785 – Treaty of Hopewell with the United States.

Treaty of Dumplin Creek with the Free Republic of Franklin.

1786 – Treaty of Coyatee with the Free Republic of Franklin.

1788 – The Cherokee nation permanently moves its seat from Chota on the Little Tennessee River to Ustanali on the Oothcaloga River, near what is now Calhoun, Georgia, after a raid by settlers from East Tennessee, in which Old Tassel, the First Beloved Man, and several other leaders are assassinated.

22 February 1791 – Treaty of Holston.

1791-1796 – Southwest Indian War, between the newly-established Southwest Territory and the Cherokee, Creek, and Shawnee.  The Creek are the last to lay down arms, in 1796.

26 June 1794 – Treaty of Philadelphia, ceding land in exchange for money.

7 November 1794 – Treaty of Tellico Blockhouse, ending the Cherokee part in the Indian Wars of the Old Southwest.

1795 – The Treaty of Greenville in December ends the Northwest Indian War, and most of the Cherokee in the north return home.

1796 – Mixed-blood redhead Will Weber, whose town, Titsohili, became his name’s sake as Willstown, departs west over the Mississippi.

2 October 1798 – Treaty of Tellico affirming boundaries marked under previous treaty.

1802 – In exchange for the State of Georgia surrendering to the federal government its claims to its western lands, President Thomas Jefferson agrees to extinguish the titles of the Muscogee and the Cherokee to their lands within its borders.

30 April 1803 – The United States of America purchases from Napoleon I of France the Louisiana Territory for the ultimate amount of $23,213,568.

24 October 1804 – Treaty of Tellico for land cession.

1805 – At the suggestion of Louisiana Territory Gov. James Wilkinson, the Cherokee living in southeast Missouri on the Mississippi River move to the Arkansas River in what becomes Arkansas Territory.

25 October 1805 – Treaty of Tellico for more land cession, including for the Federal Road.

27 October 1805 – Treaty of Tellico ceding land for the Tennessee state assembly to meet upon.

7 January 1806 – Treaty of Washington ceding land.

August 1807 – Doublehead, Speaker of the Cherokee National Assembly, and one of those chiefly responsible for engaging in secret land deals for personal profit, is assassinated in a tavern at Walker’s Ferry near the Cherokee Agency (now Calhoun, Tennessee) by The Ridge and Alexander Saunders.  James Vann, Doublehead's archrival, is originally designated the main assassin but is too inebriated to function at the time.

1808 – Because of their attempt to make a secret deal for their own profit with U.S. Commissioner Return J. Meigs, Black Fox and his assistant principal chief, The Glass, are deposed from office at a council in Hiwassee Old Town, with Black Fox being replaced by fellow former Dragging Canoe warrior Pathkiller.

1809 – A large group of Cherokee under Tahlonteeskee (Ataluntiski), Doublehead’s brother, emigrates to lands in what is now Arkansas, where he becomes the first principal chief of the Cherokee Nation West. Later in the year, Meigs sends John Ross to these Cherokee as his deputy.

19 February 1809 – James Vann, leader of the anti-treaty faction in the Nation, mentor to younger Cherokee Charles R. Hicks and The Ridge, and richest man in the Nation (east of the Mississippi River, in fact), is killed by a single shot while drinking at Buffington's Tavern, on the Federal Road northwest of Frogtown.

1810 – A party under John Bowl (aka Duwali), son of The Bowl, and Tsulawi leaves for the West.

The Cherokee Nation abolishes blood vengeance, with the clans surrendering that power to the government, in the Act of Oblivion.

1815 – John Ross opens a trading post on the Tennessee River that becomes known as Ross' Landing, with Timothy Meigs, brother of Return J. Meigs, as his partner.

22 March 1816 – Treaty of Washington, ceding last remaining territory in South Carolina to the state.

14 September 1816 – Treaty of Chickasaw Council House, ceding more land.

1817 – The Cherokee-Osage War begins in Arkansas Territory. John McLemore, one of the Lower Cherokee headmen, leads a group of twelve boats downriver from the Cherokee Nation East to assist.

8 July 1817 – Treaty of the Cherokee Agency, recognizing the division between the Upper Towns who are resistant to emigration and the Lower Towns who favor emigration, providing benefits for those who chose to emigrate west and 640 acre reserves for those who don’t with the possibility of citizenship.

Spring 1818 – The Battle of Claremore Mound takes place in Arkansas Territory when a force of Cherokee with Shawnee and Lenape allies attacks the Osage villages of Pasona and Pasuga in retaliation for a number of raids by the Osage against farms and for horse-stealing.

1818 – John Jolly, who had adopted Sam Houston and who had previously succeeded his brother Ataluntiski as headman of Cayuga (on Hiwassee, or Jolly’s, Island) upon the latter’s emigration to the west, himself emigrates to the west bringing the remaining residents of Cayuga with him.

1819 – Two parties, one under The Bowl (Diwali) and another under Richard Fields, emigrate to Tejas, then part of Viceroyalty of New Spain, settling nearby each other.

27 February 1819 – Treaty of Washington, largely reaffirming immediately previous treaty.

March 1819 – After the treaty in Washington City this year, mostly reaffirming earlier treaties but also guaranteeing individual reservations to certain prominent Cherokee, John Walker, Jr., storms into the room of John Ross, protege of Major Ridge (as The Ridge has been known since the Creek War), and attempts to knife him.

8 November 1822 – Treaty of San Antonio de Bexar, granting land in the province of Tejas in Spanish Mexico upon which the Cherokee band of The Bowl could live. Though signed by the Spanish governor of Tejas, the treaty was never ratified, neither by the Viceroyalty of New Spain nor by the succeeding Mexican Empire nor the Republic of Mexico.

1823 – George Guess, better known as Sequoyah, a distant relative of the Ridge and Watie families and a long-time advocate of Cherokee emigration west, himself emigrates to the Cherokee Nation West.

Winter 1823 – The last battle between the Cherokee and the Osage takes place, after which both nations agree to an end to hostilities.

1824 – Whitepath (Nunna'hi-dihi) of Turniptown (near Ellijay) leads a protest movement of traditionalists against acculturation and the changes in the structure of tribal government which forms its own council under Big Tiger; the schism last for four years.

After years of legal action and negotiations over rights to land within the bounds of the State of North Carolina, the Cherokee living beyond the bounds of the Cherokee Nation after the treaties of 1817 and 1819 are confirmed in their lands, the center of which is Quallatown on the Oconaluftee River. Yonaguska is chosen as their principal chief.

1826 – Whitepath is removed from the Cherokee National Council, but is reinstated two years later when the schism collapses.

January 1827 – Charles Hicks dies a mere two weeks after Pathkiller, and government of the Cherokee Nation falls on Major Ridge, as Speaker of the National Council, and John Ross, as president of the National Committee.

1828 – Gold is discovered near Dahlonega on Ward’s Creek, a tributary of the Chestatee River, within the Cherokee Nation East.

21 February 1828 – Elias Boudinot begins publication of the Cherokee Phoenix at New Echota.

6 May 1828 – A delegation from the Cherokee Nation West, including Sequoyah, travels to Washington City where they are pressured into signing the Treaty of Washington giving up their lands in Arkansas Territory for lands in Indian Territory that are essentially what becomes the Cherokee Nation after the Removal.

October 1828 – Elections are held under the new constitution of the Cherokee Nation East, with John Ross, (Guwisguwi), being elected principal chief and George Lowery assistant principal chief; Major Ridge is appointed Ross’ chief counselor.

Later in 1828 – Once in Indian Territory, the Cherokee Nation West adopts a constitution similar to the one adopted by the Cherokee Nation East.

19 December 1829 – The State of Georgia passes an act appropriating the lands of the Cherokee Nation within the territorial limits claimed by Georgia and extending the laws of that state to all persons living within its boundaries. The State of Alabama does likewise. The Georgia act in addition stipulates that all laws of the Cherokee Nation are null and void, prohibits the election of any officers, and declares that no Cherokee can testify in court against any white person.

1830 – During this year 561 Cherokee emigrate of their own accord to the western lands.

4 January 1830 – A party of thirty warriors under Major Ridge expels several families of white squatters who’d taken over the farmsteads of Cherokee emigres to the west in a detached section of Cherokee land inside South Georgia.

3 June 1830 – Governor Gilmer declares the Georgia legislative act of the previous December to be in effect and that all Cherokee lands, including the gold mines there, are now the property of the State of Georgia.

28 May 1830 – Congress passes the Indian Removal Act, aimed at the “Five Civilized Tribes”.

October 1830 – The Cherokee Nation holds its National Council meeting at New Echota, the last time it is held there. John Ridge becomes president of the National Committee, Going Snake becomes Speaker of the Council, and Alexander McCoy, who’d earlier been deposed for considering emigration, its clerk. Ridge, William Shorey Coody (John Ross’ nephew), and Richard Taylor are chosen to lead a delegation to Washington to protest the harassment of the Nation.

1831 – The Seneca on the Sandusky sell their lands in Ohio and move to Oklahoma to live with the Cherokee Nation West.

January 1831 – December 1832 – 907 Cherokee emigrate to the western lands in these two years. Most of these were in two parties, 347 in one and 422 in the other (including 127 slaves).

Early 1831 – The State of Georgia passes a law requiring whites living within the Cherokee Nation to take a loyalty oath and to obtain permission from the State in order to continue living inside the Nation. The law is aimed at missionaries, particularly those at Brainerd Mission near Chickamauga.

24 February 1831 – Members of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians are granted citizenship of the United States of America in the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, which also cedes the land of the Choctaw Nation to the government of the USA.

12 March 1831 – Samuel Worcester and several others at Etowah Mission, a satellite of Brainerd, are arrested by a party of 25 Georgia Guard.

7 July 1831 – Worcester is arrested again along with two others. The following day nine other whites are arrested.

15 September 1831 – The trial of the eleven takes place in Lawrenceville, Georgia, with the jury finding the men guilty and the judge sentencing each to four years hard labor. Upon their arrival at the prison in Milledgeville, Gov. Gilmer offers to pardon them if they take the loyalty oath and leave the state. All but two, Drs. Worcester and Butler, agree to do so.

30 November 1831 – An attempt is made on the lives of John Ross and his brother Andrew by a white advocate of Cherokee Removal.

December 1831 – A delegation from the Cherokee Nation East, composed of John Ridge, Elias Boudinot, James Martin, and William Shorey Coody, arrives in Washington City to present Cherokee grievances against the State of Georgia.

3 March 1832 – In the case of Worcester v. Georgia, Chief Justice John Marshall of the U.S. Supreme Court declares the recent laws of the State of Georgia null and void and that the Cherokee Nation East has the right to protection of the federal government from harassments by the states, and orders the release of Worcester and Butler.

24 March 1832 – Treaty of Cusseta between the Muscogee Nation and the United States of America, offering equal lands for those choosing to emigrate to Indian Territory and individual ownership of current lands with submission to Alabama state laws. After violence breaks out stemming from speculators defrauding Muscogee out of their land, the federal government sends General Winfield Scott to forcibly remove them.

April 1832 – After a meeting with President Jackson who bluntly informs him that the United States will take no measures to enforce the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Worcester v. Georgia case and that the Cherokee should prepare themselves for to go west, John Ridge reverses his stand against removal. Later, the other members of the delegation come to a like decision.

16 April 1832 – Secretary of War Lewis Cass meets with the Cherokee delegation and offers them extensive lands in Indian Territory, sovereignty over their affairs after removing there, an annuity of equal value to their cession, payment for “improvements” to their ceded lands, support for schools and industries, and various other inducements in return for the cession of their lands in the East.

9 May 1832 – Treaty of Payne's Landing with a small faction of Seminole who favor removal. It is not ratified by the U.S. Senate for another two years.

23 July 1832 – The Cherokee National Council, meeting for the first time at Red Clay, passes a resolution not to hold elections as mandated by their constitution and to allow the same officers to continue, including John Ross as Principal Chief; after this all officials in the Cherokee Nation are unelected. Elias Boudinot resigns as editor of The Cherokee Phoenix after Ross refuses to allow him to publish the report of the recent delegation to Washington favoring removal; he is ultimately replaced by Elijah Hicks, one of Ross’ brothers-in-law. 

This council marks the beginning of the sharp division between what are later called the Treaty Party and the National Party.  Leading treaty advocates at this time include John Ridge, Major Ridge, Boudinot, David Watie, Stand Watie, William Shorey Coody, William Hicks, Andrew Ross, John Walker Jr., John Fields, John Gunter, David Vann, Charles Vann, Alexander McCoy, W.A. Davis, James A. Bell, Samuel Bell, John West, Ezekial West, Archilla Smith, and James Starr, among others.

20 October 1832 – Treaty of Pontotoc between the Chickasaw Nation and the United States of America ceding their lands east of the Mississippi River for financial compensation and equal lands in Indian Territory.

22 October 1832 – The Georgia Land Lottery for the lands seized from the Cherokee in Georgia begins.

14 January 1833 – Worcester and Butler are finally released from prison.

February 1833 – President Jackson offers John Ross $3 million dollars and equivalent land in the west for those of the Cherokee Nation East; Ross refuses.

14 February 1833 – Treaty of Fort Gibson correcting conflicts between land guarantees to the Cherokee and land guarantees to the Muscogee.

Sometime in 1833 – Tatsi, aka Captain Dutch, leads a party of Old Settlers from the north to join the Texas Cherokee in what is then the Republic of Mexico, and among them is Sam Houston, adopted son of John Jolly.

November 1833 – The Cherokee who have enrolled for emigration, including most of the Treaty Party, meet at the Cherokee Agency at Calhoun, Tennessee, where they elect William Hicks as principal chief of their faction and John McIntosh as his assistant. They send a delegation to Washington City to represent their interests which includes Andrew Ross.

13 March 1834 – An emigration party under Lt. Joseph Harris departs from the Cherokee Agency. Through later accessions, it eventually numbers 903.

Spring 1834 – John Ross proposes to Secretary Cass that the Nation be allowed to remain in the East on a small part of their land, subject to the laws of the respective states in which they live, and eventually assimilate into American society. His brother Andrew, on the other hand, signs a removal treaty that even the other removal advocates boycott. Major Ridge takes the middle way, condemning both extremes, citing, to John Ross, the extreme destitution and dissolution of the Catawba who had followed that course.

16 May 1834 – Harris’ party arrives at the Cherokee Nation West.  Deaths en route number 120 due to a typhus epidemic.

19 June 1834 – The U.S. concludes a treaty with the party of Andrew Ross, brother of John Ross, over the objections of both the Ross party and the Ridge party, and is rejected by both the U.S. Senate and the Cherokee National Council.

24 June 1834 – John Walker, Jr. (Sequaneyoho), one of the leading advocates of Removal, is assassinated by James Foreman and his half-brother Anderson Springston on the road from Spring Place while returning home from a meeting of the National Council.  This assassination marks the beginning of the First Cherokee Civil War, which lasts for two years with the death rate averaging one per week.

August 1834 – Elijah Hicks presents to the National Council a petition charging Major Ridge, John Ridge, and David Vann with treason and calling for their impeachment and removal from office.  The three are never tried, nor are the charges ever dropped.

27 November 1834 – The Treaty Party holds its own council at Running Waters, the plantation of John Ridge not far from Oothcaloga (now Calhoun, Georgia).

The 1835 Census of the Cherokee Nation, East (not including the Oconaluftee Cherokee under Yonaguska in Haywood County, North Carolina, who are considered citizens of that state) shows—Georgia: 8946 “Indians”, 776 slaves, 68 whites; North Carolina: 3644 Indians, 37 slaves, 22 whites; Tennessee: 2528 Indians, 480 slaves, 79 whites; and Alabama: 1424 Indians, 299 slaves, 32 whites.  This makes a total of 16,542 Indians, 1592 slaves, and 201 whites living in the Cherokee Nation East, for a grand total of 18,335 persons overall.  This total includes 376 Muscogee living in the Cherokee Nation East since the Creek War. The estimated number of Cherokee in the West is about 5000.

14 March 1835 – U.S. envoy John F. Schermerhorn offers the Ridge delegation $3,250,000 for the lands of the Cherokee Nation East. The Ross delegation counters with a demand for $20,000,000, and when that offer is rejected outright, promises to accept an amount set by the U.S. Senate. The Senate almost immediately offers $5,000,000, but the Ross delegation reneges on their promise.  Schermerhorn eventually concludes a preliminary treaty with the Ridge delegation offering $4,500,000 for the Cherokee lands in the East plus other financial considerations.

18 July 1835 – Hundreds of Cherokee, not from just the Treaty Party but also from the National Party (including John Ross), converge on John Ridge’s plantation of Running Waters (a few miles distant from New Echota) to meet with Shermerhorn, Return J. Meigs, Jr., and other officials representing the United States government. After the conclusion of the conclave, members of the National Party murder members of the Treaty Party at a rate of at least one a week.

24 August 1835 – John Ridge holds a Green Corn Dance at the council grounds at his Running Waters plantation attended by hundreds, the primary purpose of the gathering being to build up support for a removal treaty. John Ross attempts to hold dances elsewhere to counter Ridge’s, but the Georgia Guard disperses all of these.

October 1835 – The Cherokee Council rejects the offered treaty in October, but appoints twenty men, including not only John Ross but treaty advocates John Ridge, Charles Vann, and Elias Boudinot (later replaced by Stand Watie) to represent the Cherokee Nation for a removal treaty with the stipulation that it has to be for more than five million dollars. Schermerhorn calls for a convention to negotiate a removal treaty at New Echota in the upcoming December.

7 November 1835 – The Georgia Guard invades the Ocoee District (the later Southeast Tennessee) by crossing its own declared stateline on the way to Flint Springs in what is to become Bradley County to arrest John Ross at his house, where they also find and arrest John Howard Payne, taking both men to a make-shift jail at Spring Place. Ross is released nine days later, immediately heading to Washington City, but Payne is held an additional 3 ½ days.

22 December 1835 – Some four hundred persons, exclusively from the Upper and Lower Towns areas with none from the Hill and Valley Towns in the west of North Carolina, converge on New Echota for Treaty negotiations with U.S. Commissioner Schermerhorn.

29 December 1835 – After a week of negotiations, the price for the land of the Cherokee Nation is brought up to (1) five million dollars to be disbursed on a per capita basis, (2) an additional half-million dollars for educational funds, (3) title in perpetuity to an equal amount of land in Indian Territory to that given up, (4) full compensation for all property left in the East, and (5) provision for those Cherokee who so desire to remain and become citizens of the states in which they reside on 160 acres of land.

The negotiating committee reports the results to the full council (all persons present) gathered at New Echota, which approves the treaty unanimously. The Treaty of New Echota specifying terms and conditions for Cherokee removal to the west of the Mississippi river is then signed by Major Ridge, Elias Boudinot, James Foster, Testaesky, Charles Moore, George Chambers, Tahyeske, Archilla Smith, Andrew Ross, William Lassley, Caetehee, Tegaheske, Robert Rogers, John Gunter, John A. Bell, Charles Foreman, William Rogers, George W. Adair, James Starr, and Jesse Halfbreed.

After Shermerhorn returns to Washington City with the signed treaty, John Ridge and Elias Boudinot add their names.  John Ross refuses to sign, returning to the Cherokee Nation, and implying to his supporters that he has worked out a deal with the government that if the Cherokee follow him, they will not have to remove. 

The clause in the treaty as signed at New Echota allowing Cherokee who so desire to remain and become citizens of the states in which they reside is stricken out by President Jackson.

February 1836 – The Treaty of New Echota is overwhelmingly rejected by the Cherokee National Council meeting at Red Clay.

23 February-6 March – Siege of the Alamo by the Mexican Army of Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna against Tejas/Texas rebels in the Mission San Antonio de Valero in the town of Bexar, consisting regulars under Lt. Col. William Travis, volunteers under Col. Jim Bowie, the New Orleans Greys, and Tennesseans under Col. David Crockett.

23 February 1836 – Treaty of Bowles Village with the Republic of Texas, granting nearly 4000 km² of east Texas land to the Texas Cherokees and twelve associated tribes.

2 March 1836 – The Republic of Texas declares its independence from Mexico as the Mexican army under President-General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna begins waging a war of retribution. Sam Houston, President of the Provisional Government, and later Republic, of Texas signs a treaty with the Texas Cherokee guaranteeing them their lands, but the treaty is rejected by the Texas Senate the next year.

18 May 1836 – The Treaty of New Echota is ratified in the United States Senate by just the single vote necessary for the required number.

23 May 1836 – President Jackson proclaims the Treaty of New Echota to the American people.

June 1836 – Federal troops under General John E. Wool, with support from East Tennessee volunteers under Brigadier General R. G. Dunlap, move into the Cherokee Nation to “prevent disorder”.  This combined command is called the ‘Army of East Tennessee and the Cherokee Nation’.

September 1836 – Dunlap disbands his brigade of volunteers and sends them home.

1 January 1837 – 600 members of the Treaty Party depart for the Cherokee Nation West, paying their own way.

3 March 1837 – The first party removed at the expense of the U.S. government, composed of 466 person including the Ridge and Watie families, departs from Ross’ Landing (near present-day Chattanooga, Tennessee) under Dr. John S. Young.

28 March 1837 – Dr. Young’s party arrives at Fort Smith, Arkansas, with most unloading and refusing to go further.  A small number continues the next day to Fort Coffee, Indian Territory.

1 July 1837 – General Wool is relieved from duty at his own request, with Colonel William Lindsay taking his place in command of the troops in the Cherokee Nation East.  He begins preparation for the ethnic-cleansing of the Cherokee in earnest, and is directly responsible for building most of the forts and stockades used in the operation.

September 1837 – A delegation of Cherokee sent by John Ross travels to Florida at the invitation of the federal government to act as intermediaries between the Seminole and the government, the latter hoping the Cherokee will convince the Seminole to stop resisting removal. The Cherokee deputation—consisting of Hair Conrad, Jesse Bushyhead, Richard Fields, Thomas Woodward, and Pole Cat—employs stalling tactics and leaves convinced that the Seminole have chosen the correct course.

14 October 1837 – The second party voluntarily removed by the U.S. government, composed of 365 persons, leaves from the Cherokee Agency under B. B. Cannon.

27 December 1837 – Cannon’s party arrives in the Cherokee Nation West, with 18 people having died along the way.

8 January 1838 – The War Department reports that 2103 Cherokee have departed for the west, 1258 having used their own resources.

8 May 1838 – Major General Winfield Scott arrives in Charleston to supervise the forced ethnic-cleansing.  He divides his command into three: Gen. Abram Eustis is over the Eastern Military District, with responsibility for the Cherokee in North Carolinal; Gen. Charles R. Floyd is over the Middle Military District, with resonsibility for the Cherokee in Georgia; Col. William Lindsay is over the Western Military District, with responsibility for the Cherokee in Southeast Tennessee & North Alabama.

Forts in Tennessee: Fort Cass (Cherokee Agency), Fort Foster (halfway between Fort Cass and the current Cleveland, Tennessee), Camp Worth (Rattlesnake Springs), Camp Ross (Red Clay Council Ground), Fort Marr (southeast Bradley County), Fort Wood (east of Ross’ Landing), and Fort near Indian Springs. 

Forts in Georgia: Fort Hetzel (Ellijay, Gilmer Co.), Fort Scudder (Frogtown Creek north of Dahlonega), Fort Talking Rock (near Jasper, Pickens Co.), Fort Gilmer (Coosawatie), Fort Buffington (near Canton), Fort Hoskins (Spring Place), Fort Wool (New Echota), Fort at Head of Coosa (now Rome, Georgia), Fort Means (halfway between New Echota and Cedartown), Fort at Cedartown, Fort Campbell (halfway between Dahlonega and Canton), Fort Newman (halfway between Ft. Gilmer and Ft. Campbell), and Fort Cumming (Lafayette). 

Forts in North Carolina: Fort Lindsay (Bryson City), Fort Scott (Aquone), Fort Montgomery (Robbinsville), Fort Hembrie (Hayesville), Fort Delaney (Valleytown), and Fort Butler (Murphy). 

Forts in Alabama: Fort Payne, Fort Turkeytown, Fort Lovell, Fort Likens, Fort Armstrong (DeKalb Co.), and Fort Deposit (downstream from Gunter’s Landing).

10 May 1838 – General Scott issues a proclamation to the Cherokee Nation that troops are coming to round them up and enforce obedience to the Treaty of New Echota.

26 May 1838 – Beginning of the round-up of the Cherokee in Georgia, with most being crowded into Camp Cherokee at Ross’ Landing.

4 June 1838 – Beginning of the round-up of the Cherokee left in North Carolina, with most being taken to camps in Bradley County.

5 June 1838 – Beginning of the round-up of the Cherokee in Tennessee.

Internment camps in Bradley County: Cherokee Agency, Rattlesnake Springs, South Mouse Creek No. 1, South Mouse Creek No. 2, Gunstocker Spring, Upper Chatata, Beeler Ridge, Chestua Creek, Camp Ross at Red Clay, Bedwell’s Springs, Wildwood Spring, Camp Hetzel (Cleveland), and Candy’s Creek. 

Internment camps in Hamilton County: Camp Cherokee near Ross’ Landing and Camp Clanewaugh at Indian Springs (headwaters of Citico Creek).

6 June 1838 – First group of forced exiles, numbering about 800, departs from Ross’ Landing under Lieutenant Deas. The group takes on additional members at Brown’s Ferry, just downriver near the mouth of Lookout Creek.

12 June 1838 – Beginning of the round-up of Cherokee in Alabama, with detainees held at Fort Payne.

13 June 1838 – Second group of forced exiles, numbering about 875, departs from Ross’ Landing under Lieutenant R. H. K. Whitely.

17 June 1838 – Third group of forced exiles, numbering about 1070, departs from Ross’ Landing under Drane.

19 June 1838 – Lieutenant Deas’ party arrives at Fort Smith, where most emigrants disembark and refuse to get back on. Those who remain aboard disembark at Fort Coffee the following day.

19 June 1838 – General Scott grants the request from Ross and the National Council to suspend removal until better weather in the fall (the date suggested is 1 September). In spite of this, Capt. Drane refuses to halt his group, which has left just two days before. Scott estimates in his report that at the time there are about 3000 in the camps around the Cherokee Agency, 2500 at Ross’ Landing, and 1250 at camps between those two points, with 2000–3000 at interiors forts waiting to be moved to the concentration camps and around 200 remaining to be captured.

12 July 1838 – The boats from Lieutenant Whitely’s party run aground at Benson’s Bar, and the party continues overland eight days later.

25 July 1838 – General Scott agrees to the plan of Ross and the National Council for the Cherokee to supervise their own removal, accepting the bid of Ross and his brother Lewis to do so at a price of $65 per head. Sam Houston, President of the Republic of Texas, and John Jolly, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation West, had put in a bid for just $9.

(A few decades later, the Mormon Church was allotting $45 to bring members all the way from England to Utah.)

1–7 August 1838 – Last council meeting of the Cherokee Nation east of the Mississippi River, at Aquohee Camp in the current Bradley County, Tennessee, at the site now known as Rattlesnake Springs.

5 August 1838 – Whitely’s party arrives at the Cherokee Nation West with only 602 person remaining; 143 have escaped from the party but the rest of those missing have died.

7 August 1838 – Drane’s party arrives at the Cherokee Nation West with only 722 persons remaining. About 100 persons escaped before the party arrived in Bellefonte, Alabama, and another 300 while the party was stopped there, though many of the latter are recaptured. Seventy-six more escape before Waterloo.

19 August 1838 – Last communion of the Church of Christ at Chickamauga, the church at Brainerd Mission. The missionaries accompany the Cherokee to the West.

28 August 1838 – The detachment of Hair Conrad, which includes Going Snake and Treaty-supporter (and Ross relative) William Shorey Coody, departs from the camp at Wildwood Spring. It crosses the Hiwassee River at Walker’s Ferry to the Agency, then the Tennessee River at Tucker’s Ferry before being forced to halt near the northern landing of Blythe’s Ferry because of a lack of drinking water due to the heavy drought.

1 September 1838 – The detachment of Elijah Hicks, which includes Whitepath, departs from the camps around the Agency following the same path as Conrad’s detachment only to be likewise halted at Gunstocker Spring.

3 September 1838 – The detachment of Jesse Bushyhead and Roman Nose departs from the camps around the Agency following the same route as the previous two, only to be halted before crossing the Tennessee River.

3 September 1838 – General Scott halts the emigration because the drought has dried up the springs and branches in the Cumberland Mountains.

1 October 1838 – The detachment of John Benge departs from Fort Payne.

3 October 1838 – Hicks’ and Conrad’s detachments, the latter now under Daniel Colston, get underway in that order. The detachment of Richard Taylor also departs from Ross’ Landing on this day. The rest of detachments gradually begin their journey on the land route in the following order under the listed supervisors: Situwakee, Bushyhead, Old Field, James Brown, Choowalooka (James Wofford), Moses Daniel, George Hicks, and Peter Hildebrand.

11 October 1838 – A detachment of 675 persons of the Treaty Party under John A. Bell departs from the Agency, having refused removal under Ross.

1 November 1838 – Twelve members of a group of twenty Cherokee in western North Carolina who have evaded the round-up and forced emigration are captured and held under guard by three enlisted men and a lieutenant. During the night, two of the soldiers are killed and one wounded, while the lieutenant escapes into the night, as do the prisoners.

7 November 1838 – After seeing off the other detachments on the land route, the detachment of John Drew, which includes the families of John and Lewis Ross as well as that of Joseph Vann, attempts to get underway on the luxury riverboat, but is delayed because by low water.

23 November 1838 – At this time all of the fugitives of Tsali’s band have been captured except for Tsali himself, formerly of Coosawatiyi and a leader of the Cherokee Ghost Dance movement of 1811-1812.  On this day three of the men are executed by a firing squad composed of men from Yonaguska’s Oconaluftee Cherokee, who have citizenship in the State of North Carolina, and from Utsala’s Nantahala Cherokee, who live within the (now) former Cherokee Nation.

25 November 1838 – Utsala’s band finally captures Tsali and executes him by firing squad. For their part in helping quell this “rebellion”, his Nantahala Cherokee are allowed to join Yonaguska’s group.

5 December 1838 – Drew’s detachment finally gets underway.

28 December 1838 – Death of John Jolly, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation West. He is succeeded by John Looney.

1839-1843 – The Regulator-Moderator War in East Texas.

4 January 1839 – The detachment of Elijah Hicks arrives at Ft. Gibson.

7 January 1839 – The detachment of John Bell arrives at Ft. Gibson.

11 January 1839 – The detachment of John Benge arrives at Ft. Gibson.

16 January 1839 – The detachment of Daniel Colton arrives at Ft. Gibson.

2 February 1839 – The detachment of Situwakee arrives at Ft. Gibson.

23 February 1839 – The detachment of Old Field arrives at Ft. Gibson.

27 February 1839 – The detachment of Jesse Bushyhead arrives at Ft. Gibson.

1 March 1839 – The detachment of Choowalooka arrives at Ft. Gibson.

2 March 1839 – The detachment of Moses Daniel arrives at Ft. Gibson.

5 March 1839 – The detachment of James Brown arrives at Ft. Gibson.

14 March 1839 – The detachment of George Hicks arrives at Ft. Gibson.

18 March 1839 – The detachment of John Drew arrives at Ft. Gibson.

24 March 1839 – The detachment of Richard Taylor arrives at Ft. Gibson.

25 March 1839 – The detachment of Peter Hildebrand arrives ar Ft. Gibson.

The following are figures compiled by Emmet Starr, as a comparison for the three different accounts.  Captain John Page was disbursing officer at the Cherokee Nation, East.  Stephenson was receiving officer at Ft. Gibson.  Page lists as 11,813 departures; Stephenson lists 11,494 arrivals; John Ross lists 13,149 transported in all. 

According to Duane King, there were approximately 350 deaths during the Removal, about 200 of these deaths were in the camps centered around Rattlesnake Springs, the remaining 150 en route. The official figures for changes in numbers from the round-up to the last arrivals in Indian Territory were 424 deaths, 71 births, 182 disappearances, and 191 accessions (meaning persons picked up en route).

Note: Duane King was co-founder of the Journal of Cherokee Studies along with Raymond Evans.

April 1839 – Yonaguska, Principal Chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee, dies and his adopted son, William Holland Thomas, succeeds him.

22 April 1839 – The Old Settlers hold an election to select new officers to strengthen their organization vis-a-vis the Latecomers under Ross.  John Brown, formerly of Brown’s Tavern, Landing, and Ferry in Tuskegee (Lookout Valley) west of Moccasin Bend in the Tennessee River as well as former judge of the Chickamauga District of the Cherokee Nation East, becomes Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation West.

3 June 1839 – A council to form a union between the Old Settlers and the Late Immigrants convenes at Double Springs.  The council breaks up sixteen days later without having reached an agreement when Brown becomes too frustrated with Ross’ intransigence and his insistence that the Old Settlers accept him as Principal Chief over the united Nation without an election.  Ross’ partisans blame Brown’s actions on the members of the Treaty Party, particularly those who had emigrated prior to the forced removal such as the Ridge and Watie families.

19 June 1839 – A secret conclave is held by Ross’ partisans, allegedly without Ross’ knowledge, at which plans are made for the assassinations of Major Ridge, John Ridge, Elias Boudinot, Stand Watie, John A. Bell, James Starr, George Adair, and others. Notably absent from the list are Treaty Party leaders David Vann, Charles Vann, John Gunter, Charles Foreman, William Hicks, and Andrew Ross.

22 June 1839 – John Ridge is dragged out of his home and murdered in front of his wife and children by a party of twenty-five men that includes Daniel Colston, John Vann, Archibald Spear, James Spear, Joseph Spear, Hunter, and others. 

Elias Boudinot is assassinated near his home by a party of some thirty men including Johnston, Soft-shelled, Turtle, Money Talker, Carsootawdy, Joseph Beanstalk, Edward Gunter, Sanders, and others.

Major Ridge is assassinated in the State of Arkansas by a party including James Foreman, Bird Doublehead, Jefferson Hair, James Hair, and two brothers named Springston.

A fourth party is sent to assassinate Stand Watie, but he fights them off and escapes to Missouri Territory.

With their deaths, the Second Cherokee Civil War begins. The Nation remains at war with itself and divided between the Old Settlers and the Treaty Party on one side, against the National Party on the other for several more decades with numerous murders for political reasons each year.

Summer 1839 – John Brown and his officers are deposed by the Old Settlers for failure to reach a compromise with the Latecomers, and John Looney, then second chief, once again becomes Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation West.

1839-1843 – Texas Indian War, between the Republic of Texas and Cherokee, Shawnee, Lenape, Kickapoo, Chickasaw, Waco, Tawakani, Biloxi, Keechi, Caddo, Anadahkah, Ionie, Witchita, Comanche, Kiowa, Kiowa Apache, and others.

15 July 1839 – In the Battle of Neches, the Republic of Texas, now under a new president, Mirabeau Lamar, attacks the chief settlement of the Cherokee, killing about 100, including Duwali (The Bowl).  Many survivors leave for the Cherokee Nation in Indian Territory.

6 September 1839 – Cherokee delegates meeting in Tahlequah, the new capital, composed mostly of National Party adherents but including a few Treaty Party members and some Old Settlers as well, sign a constitution for the reunited Cherokee Nation drafted by William Shorey Coody and signed by John Ross for the Latecomers and John Looney for the Old Settlers.  John Ross becomes Principal Chief of the united Cherokee Nation.

22 September 1839 – The Commissioner of Indian Affairs reports to the Secretary of War that there are 1,046 Cherokee remaining in North Carolina, including the Oconaluftee Cherokee (now joined in the Quallatown area by the Nantahala Cherokee), the 300 Cherokee from the areas of North Carolina within the New Echota cession (Snowbird and Cheoah communities), and 46 refugees from the concentration camps. There are also another 300 in the states of Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama.

11 October 1839 – A faction of the Old Settlers following John Rogers, former third chief under John Brown’s short term, meets in council and elects him as Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation West, but their effort gains no further support and dies the next year.

25 December 1839 – Last battle of the Cherokee War proper with the Republic of Texas, on the headwaters of the Sabine River, in which John Bowles, son of The Bowl/Duwali, is killed.  The remaining Texas Cherokees under Chicken Trotter join Mexican forces in a guerrilla war.

18 May 1840 – John Ross submits his claim against the federal government for the expenses of the Removal.

November 1842 – The Cherokee Slave Revolt.

31 March 1843 – Treaty of Bird’s Fort, with the Republic of Texas, ending hostilities among several Texas tribes, including the Cherokees, and, recognizing the tribal status of the Texas Indians as distinct, including the Cherokees that would later become known as the Texas Cherokees and Associate Bands-Mount Tabor Indian Community.  President of Texas Sam Houston, adopted son of former Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation West John Jolly, signs for the Republic of Texas.

29 December 1845 – The Republic of Texas enters the Union as the 28th state.

6 August 1846 – The Treaty of Washington is signed between the three factions of the Cherokee Nation (Old Settlers, Treaty Party, Latecomers) in an attempt to end open hostilities and unite the Nation, at least on the surface.

1861-1865 – The American Civil War.  Both Cherokee tribes, the Cherokee Nation and the Eastern Band, form units to fight for the Confederacy. 

Col. John Drew organizes the First Regiment of Cherokee Mounted Rifles and Col. Stand Watie the Second Regiment of Cherokee Mounted Rifles.  In late 1861 and early 1862, the majority of Drew’s regiment go over to the Union side (although Drew himself remains Confederate), after which Watie combines the remainder with his own as the 1st Cherokee Mounted Rifles.  This regiment becomes the core of the First Indian Brigade of the Army of the Trans-Mississippi.

The First Indian Brigade, commanded by Watie, is composed of the 1st Cherokee Mounted Rifles (Col. Robert Parks), 2nd Cherokee Mounted Infantry (Col. William Adair), Cherokee Battalion (Maj. Joseph Scales), 1st Osage Battalion (Major Broken Arm), 1st Creek Mounted Volunteers (Col. Daniel McIntosh), 2nd Creek Mounted Volunteers (Col. Chilly McIntosh), Creek Squadron (Capt. R. Renard), and 1st Seminole Battlion (Lt. Col. John Jumper).

The Second Indian Brigade is made up entirely of Choctaw and Chickasaw units.  To complete the Army of Trans-Mississippi’s Indian Division, commanded by Maj. Gen. Douglas Cooper, the army assigns the 7th Mounted Artillery Battalion of four batteries.

Other Trans-Mississippi Cherokee Confederate units include 1st Battalion, Cherokee Partisan Rangers commanded by Maj. Joel Bryan, which merge into the First Indian Brigade in 1863,  and the Cherokee Special Services Battalion, which only exists for a couple of months in the spring of 1865.  Other units originate as part of the brigade.

The former troops of Drew’s regiment who crossed sides become the 2nd and 3rd Indian Home Guard of the Union army.  Together with the 1st Indian Home Guard, they become the Union’s First Brigade, Indian Home Guards under Col. William A. Phillips.

The Eastern Band forms the Thomas Legion of Cherokee Indians and Highlanders in the Department of East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia (including the District of Western North Carolina).  The command is composed of the Cherokee Mounted Infantry Battalion, Walker’s Mounted Infantry Battalion, Love’s Infantry Regiment (two companies of Cherokee and eight of white soldiers), and Levi’s (later Barr’s) Light Artillery Battery.

In the later half of the war, twenty-five to thirty Cherokee of the Eastern Band serve in the Union army with the 3rd North Carolina Mounted Infantry under Col. George Kirk.  Their territory is much the same as the Thomas Legion, but the two units never face each other, with the main antagonists of Kirk’s unit being Osborne’s (later Jenkins’) Scouts.

1862 – The hidden divisions in the Nation break out into the open when Ross and a large contingent of his adherents break with the rest of the Nation over their support of the Confederacy during the Civil War and throw their support to the Union. Those remaining in the Cherokee Nation, two-thirds of the number prior to Ross’ departure, elect Stand Watie as principal chief, a post Ross had abandoned when he fled to Washington City.

8 September 1865 – Treaty of Fort Smith is signed between the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Comanche, Creek, Osage, Quapaw, Seminole, Seneca, Shawnee, Wichita and Wyandot and the United States. Among other provisions, it recognizes the John Ross party as the sole legitimate representatives of the Cherokee Nation. Ignored were the claims of Stand Watie, principal chief of the Confederate Cherokee, who had summoned his nephew John Rollin Ridge from California to negotiate for recognition of a "Southern Cherokee Nation", aspirations for which died the same day.

19 July 1866 – Treaty of Tahlequah formally ending hostilities between the Cherokee Nation and the United States of America, as well as reuniting the Nation and at last putting aside the divisions which have riven it for more than three decades.  Sentiments of resentment toward each other and their descendants, however, continued well past the dissolution of the Nation in 1907.

27 July 1868 – Treaty of Washington, supplementing the treaty of 1866.

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