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.

It required the Cherokee to cede their remaining lands in the Southeast to the US and to relocate to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River.

Blamed for the ceding of communal land and the deaths of the Trail of Tears, Ridge was assassinated in 1839 by members of the Ross faction who believed they were acting in accordance with the Cherokee Blood Law.

Ridge's maternal grandfather was a Scots trader who returned to Europe and left a Cherokee wife and daughter behind in America.

Until the end of the Cherokee – American wars, the young man was known as Nunnehidihi, meaning "He Who Slays The Enemy In His Path"[3] or "The Pathkiller" (not the same as another chief of the same name).[which?]

[5] In 1792, Ridge married Sehoya, also known as Suzannah Catherine Wickett, a mixed-blood Cherokee of the Wild Potato clan.

Ridge appreciated the value of education and believed that the Cherokee must learn to communicate with European Americans and to understand their ways in order to survive as a nation.

But, after the men agreed to surrender, Doublehead changed his mind and ordered that all the inhabitants be killed, including thirteen women and children.

They killed several leading Chickamauga Cherokee and wounded others, including Hanging Maw, the chief headman of the Overhill Towns.

The Council determined this to be a capital crime against the nation, and directed Ridge, James Vann, and Alexander Sanders to execute Doublehead.

[9] Shortly before the War of 1812, Shawnee chief Tecumseh and his brother, Tenskawatawa (also called "The Prophet"), came south to recruit other tribes to unite and together prevent the sale of their lands to white immigrants.

[10] Ridge acquired the title "Major" in 1814, during his service leading the Cherokee alongside the United States General Andrew Jackson at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend during the Creek War against the Red Sticks.

After the war, Ridge moved his family to the Cherokee town of Head of Coosa (present-day Rome, Georgia).

Major Ridge also developed and owned a profitable ferry that carried wagons and their teams across the Oostanuaula River.

[12] In 1816, Andrew Jackson tried to persuade the Chickasaw and Cherokee nations to sell their lands in the Southeast and move west of the Mississippi River.

But, Georgia efforts to suppress the Cherokee government and the pressure of rapidly expanding European-American settlements caused him to change his mind.

On December 29, 1835, Ridge made his mark on the Treaty of New Echota, which ceded the remainder of Cherokee tribal land east of the Mississippi River for land in Indian Territory, to be supplemented by the payment of annuities for a period of time, plus support from the government in terms of supplies, tools and food.

[a] Accompanied by his wife, daughter, and one of son John's children, Major Ridge traveled by flatboat and steamer to a place in Indian Territory called Honey Creek, near the Arkansas-Missouri Border.

[16] In the West, the Ross faction blamed Ridge and the other signers of the Treaty of New Echota for the 4,000 deaths along the trail in the Removal, as well as the loss of communal lands, which was held to be a capital crime.

In June 1839, Major Ridge and nephew Elias Boudinot, were executed in accordance with the Cherokee Blood Law by members of the Ross faction.

In the 1850s, Watie was tried in Arkansas for Foreman's murder, but he was acquitted on grounds of self-defense; he was defended by his brother Elias Cornelius Boudinot.

Stand Watie served as Principal Chief (1862-1866) of the pro-Confederate Cherokee after Ross and many Union-supporters withdrew to another location.