Major Ridge

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Major Ridge bigraphy, stories - Cherokee leader

Major Ridge : biography

1771 – June 22, 1839

Major Ridge, The Ridge (and sometimes Pathkiller II) (c. 1771 – June 22, 1839) (also known as Nunnehidihi, and later Ganundalegi) was a Cherokee leader, a member of the tribal council, a Chickamauga warrior, and a lawmaker. As a warrior, he fought in the Chickamauga Wars against the American frontiersmen. Later, Major Ridge led the Cherokee in alliances with General Andrew Jackson and the United States in the Creek and Seminole Wars.

Along with Charles R. Hicks and James Vann, Ridge was part of the "Cherokee triumvirate," a group of younger chiefs in the early nineteenth century Cherokee Nation who supported acculturation and other changes in how the people dealt with the United States. All were of mixed race and had some exposure to European-American culture, but identified as Cherokee. Ridge became a wealthy planter, slave owner and ferryman.

Under increasing pressure for removal from the federal government, Ridge and others of the minority Treaty Party signed the controversial Treaty of New Echota of 1835. They believed removal was inevitable and tried to protect Cherokee rights. It required the Cherokee to cede their remaining lands in the Southeast to the US and relocate to the Indian Territory. Opponents protested to the US government and negotiated a new treaty the following year, but were still forced to accept removal.

After Indian Removal to what is now Oklahoma, in 1839 Major Ridge, his son John, and nephew Elias Boudinot were assassinated by tribal members under Cherokee Blood Law for alienating the land, as were other Treaty Party members. Attacked the same day, Boudinot’s younger brother Stand Watie survived; in 1842 killed one of the attackers. In 1845 opponents retaliated, killing his younger brother Thomas Watie.

Legacy

Media

  • Ridge’s life and the Trail of Tears are dramatized in Episode 3 of Ric Burns’documentary, We Shall Remain, part of the American Experience programs on PBS.

Background

Early life

Ridge was born into the Deer clan of his mother, Oganotota (O-go-nuh-to-tua), a Scots-Cherokee woman, in the Cherokee town of Great Hiwassee, along the Hiwassee River (an area later part of Tennessee)., University of Oklahoma Press, 1989, p. 7 His father was believed to be full-blood Cherokee. His maternal grandfather was a Scots trader who returned to Europe and left a Cherokee wife and daughter behind in America.Langguth, p. 29.

He was the third son born, but the first to survive to adulthood. He had two younger brothers, one of whom became known as David Uwatie (or Watie). From his early years, Ridge was taught patience and self-denial, and to endure fatigue. On reaching the proper age, he was initiated as a warrior. The Cherokee believed that a man’s achievements as a warrior were a sign of his spiritual power and part of his leadership.

Until the end of the Chickamauga Wars, the young man was known as Nunnehidihi, meaning "He Who Slays The Enemy In His Path" or "The Pathkiller" (not the same as the chief of the same name). Later he was named Ganundalegi (other spellings include Ca-Nun-Tah-Cla-Kee, Ca-Nun-Ta-Cla-Gee, and Ka-Nun-Tah-Kla-Gee), meaning "The Man Who Walks On The Mountain Top." White men knew him by the simplified English name, "The Ridge".Hicks, p. 19

Marriage and family

In 1792 Ridge married Sehoya, also known as Suzannah Catherine Wickett, a mixed-blood Cherokee of the Wild Potato clan.Johansen, Bruce Elliot and Barry Pritzker. ABC-CLIO, 2007. ISBN 978-1-85109-817-0 Her name was also spelled Sehoyah; she was the daughter of Kate Parris and Ar-tah-ku-ni-sti-sky ("Wickett"). The couple had several children, including John Ridge. They sent him in 1819 as a young man to Cornwall, Connecticut to be educated in European-American classical studies at the Foreign Mission School.

After the Chickamauga Wars, the Ridges lived in Oothcaloga, near the modern city of Calhoun, Georgia. In 1819, they moved near the town of Chatuga at the confluence of the Oostanaula and Etowah Rivers. The family’s house has been adapted as the Chieftain’s Museum. It was near the home of Ridge’s protégé, John Ross.