Major Ridge, The Ridge was a Cherokee leader, a member of the tribal council, and a lawmaker. As a warrior, he fought in the Cherokee–American wars against American frontiersmen. Later, Major Ridge led the Cherokee in alliances with General Andrew Jackson and the United States in the Creek and Seminole wars of the early 19th century.
1834 portrait of Major Ridge by Charles Bird King, in History of the Indian Tribes of North America.
The Cherokee people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, they were concentrated in their homelands, in towns along river valleys of what is now southwestern North Carolina, southeastern Tennessee, southwestern Virginia, edges of western South Carolina, northern Georgia and northeastern Alabama consisting of around 40,000 square miles
Sequoyah, creator of the Cherokee syllabary as painted by Henry Inman circa 1830
Great Smoky Mountains
After the Anglo-Cherokee War, bitterness remained between the two groups. In 1765, Henry Timberlake took three Cherokee chiefs to London meet the Crown and help strengthen the newly declared peace.
Portrait of Major Ridge in 1834, from History of the Indian Tribes of North America.
