Happy Birthday, John Ross

Today near Lookout Mountain in Tennessee, in the year 1790, John Ross, Chief of the United Cherokee Nation from 1839 to 1866, was born. Ross was chief during the "removal" of the Cherokee from their homes, when they were forced to walk to Oklahoma, with thousands dying. It was a dark day, especially given that the Cherokee - the most assimilated Indian tribe there ever was, with plantations, newspapers in their own language, and even slaves, just like their white neighbors - had appealed to the Supreme Court.

And won.

At any rate - I urge you to read Sarah Vowel's wonderful Take The Cannoli, which has a brilliant, painful recounting of the trip she and her sister took retracing the Trail of Tears, beginning with the point in Chattanooga where, as the plaque says, the "Cherokee embarked for the West."