Cherokee Removal Along the Trail, 1838-1839: Separating Fact from Fiction

The misinformation and misunderstandings concerning Cherokee Indian removal has resulted from how subsequent generations of historians and Cherokees have talked and written about it. The historiography of Indian removal is quite extensive but with respect to Cherokee removal not so much because most of the original documents kept by the Cherokees unexplainably disappeared in the nineteenth century. The drought of 1837-1838 was used as an excuse by John Ross and Lewis Ross to insist that the northern route be used to remove the remaining Cherokees to Indian Territory. Evidence presented clearly demonstrates that both men sought to enrich themselves at the expense of the Cherokee Nation from funds set aside from the sale of their land and additional moneys appropriated for removal by the U.S. Senate. The more the Ross brothers profited, the less money available for distribution as annuities to the Nation following the payment of all removal expenses. The preponderance of the evidence appears to suggest that the Ross brothers reaped personal fortunes as a result of Cherokee removal to the West. The lifestyle that they were able to luxuriate after reaching Indian Territory was vastly different from what the average Cherokees were able to attain and enjoy in their new homeland. The proof of financial malfeasance of the Ross brothers appears to have been evident but some scholars may have chosen to overlook it.