Treaty of New Echota - Division of The Cherokee Nation East

Division of The Cherokee Nation East

A division developed between Ross supporters (the "National Party") advocating resistance, and the Ridge supporters (the "Treaty Party"), who advocated negotiation to secure the best terms possible for the removal and protection of Cherokee rights after removal. They considered it inevitable. The Treaty Party included John Ridge, Major Ridge, Elias Boudinot, David Watie, Stand Watie, Willam Coody (Ross' nephew), William Hicks (Ross' cousin), Andrew Ross (John's younger brother), John Walker Jr., John Fields, John Gunter, David Vann, Charles Vann, Alexander McCoy, W.A. Davis, James A. Bell, Samuel Bell, John West, Ezekiel West, Archilla Smith, and James Starr.

Eventually tensions grew to the point that several Treaty advocates, most notably John Walker Jr., were assassinated. In July 1835, hundreds of Cherokee, not from just the Treaty Party but also from the National Party (including John Ross), converged on John Ridge’s plantation named Running Waters (near Calhoun, Georgia) to meet with John F. Schermerhorn (President Jackson's envoy on the matter of a removal treaty with the Cherokee Nation East), Return J. Meigs, Jr. (Commissioner for Indian Affairs), and other officials representing the United States government.

The General Council in October 1835 rejected the proposed treaty but appointed a committee to go to Washington City to negotiate a removal treaty, a committee including not only John Ross but treaty advocates John Ridge, Charles Vann, and Elias Boudinot (who was later replaced by Stand Watie), to represent the Cherokee Nation East for a removal treaty with the stipulation that it has to be for more than five million dollars. Schermerhorn, who was present at the meeting, pushed a meeting which he wanted held at New Echota. The National Council approved a delegation to meet there. Both delegations were specifically charged with negotiating a treaty for removal.