Treaty of New Echota

The Treaty of New Echota was a removal treaty signed in New Echota, Georgia by officials of the United States government and several members of a faction within the Cherokee nation on December 29, 1835. In the treaty, the United States agreed to pay the Cherokee people $5 million, cover the costs of relocation, and give them land in Indian Territory (modern Oklahoma) in exchange for the Cherokee reservation land in Georgia and Alabama. While the treaty was ratified by the United States Senate and enforced upon the Cherokee people, it was never signed by any official representative of the Cherokee nation, and the Cherokee nation refused to recognize the validity of the treaty.

The Ridge Party

By the 1830s, the Cherokee had withstood a steady erosion of their ancestral lands into the hands of white settlers, despite the Cherokee's attempts to organize themselves (they had an elected tribal government) and their treaties with the United States. When the elected leader of the Cherokee, John Ross, refused the U.S. government's offer of money and land in Oklahoma in exchange for the land previously guaranteed to the Cherokee, the federal government simply chose to deal with a group of Cherokee who were willing to move to Oklahoma for the offer price. "The Ridge Party", as this faction came to be called, was led by Major Ridge, his son John Ridge, and his nephews Elias Boudinot and Stand Watie. The federal government sent its designated agents, General William Carroll and the Reverend John Schermerhorn, to draw up a treaty and convince the Ridges to sign it. By signing the treaty even though they were not elected representatives of the tribe, the Ridge Party actually violated Cherokee law--a law that in fact had been proposed by John Ridge himself several years earlier. Once the deal was approved, the Ridge Party was paid, and they began their journey west.

Related Topics:
1830s - John Ross - Major Ridge - John Ridge - Elias Boudinot - Stand Watie - William Carroll - John Schermerhorn

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