Although the treaty was not approved by the Cherokee National Council nor signed by Principal Chief John Ross, it was amended and ratified in March 1836, and became the legal basis for the forcible removal known as the Trail of Tears carried out in 1838-1839.

By the late 1820s, the territory of the Cherokee Indian nation lay almost entirely in northwestern Georgia, with small parts in Tennessee, Alabama, and North Carolina.

Adams, a supporter of tribal sovereignty, initially refused, but when Georgia threatened to nullify the current treaty, he approached the Cherokee to negotiate.

Principal Chief John Ross was also of mixed race, and had tried to make use of his heritage to benefit the Cherokee in relations with whites.

It declared that current officials would retain their offices until elections could be held, and established an emergency government based in Tennessee.

The Council tried to force Jackson's hand against Georgia by suing the state in federal courts and lobbying Congress to support Cherokee sovereignty.

When asked whether he would use federal force against Georgia, Jackson said he would not and urged Ridge to persuade the Cherokee to accept removal.

John McLean, a Jackson appointee to the Supreme Court, likewise urged the Cherokee representatives in Washington to negotiate.

[4] Jackson quickly dispatched Secretary of War Lewis Cass to present his terms, which included western land titles, self-government, relocation assistance, and several other long-term benefits—all conditioned on a total Cherokee removal.

In December 1833, the Cherokees supporting removal formed a party, with the former principal chief William Hicks as their head and John McIntosh as his assistant.

[3] In the October meeting of the Cherokee General Council (comprising all members of the Nation able to attend), a federal representative presented this treaty for consideration.

There they met with John F. Schermerhorn, President Jackson's envoy for a removal treaty, Return J. Meigs, Jr., the Commissioner for Indian Affairs, and other U.S.

(Heavy snow in the western North Carolina mountains made it nearly impossible for those from the Hill and Valley Towns to travel.)

After a week of negotiations, Schermerhorn proposed that in exchange for all Cherokee land east of the Mississippi River, the Cherokees would receive $5,000,000 from the U.S. (to be distributed per capita to all members of the tribe), an additional $500,000 for educational funds, title in perpetuity to land in Indian Territory equal to that given up, and full compensation for all property left behind.

[8]) The treaty included a clause to allow all Cherokees who so desired to remain and become citizens of the states in which they resided, on individual allotments of 160 acres (0.65 km2) of land.

In a lengthy preamble, the Ridge party laid out its claims to legitimacy, based on its willingness to negotiate in good faith the sort of removal terms for which Ross had expressed support.

[10] After Schermerhorn returned to Washington with the signed treaty, John Ridge and Stand Watie added their names.

This was nearly as many persons as the Cherokee Nation East had within its territory, according to the 1835 Henderson Roll, including women and children, who had no vote.

That summer (1839) a council to effect a union between the Old Settlers and the Late Immigrants convened at Double Springs in Indian Territory.

It broke up sixteen days later without having reached an agreement when John Brown, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation–West, became frustrated with Ross's intransigence.

But the base of the tribe that had already formed was stepped on and ignored, in spite of the fact that the old settlers and the Treaty party were settling in together nicely.

Ross's partisans blamed Brown's actions on the Treaty Party, particularly those, such as the Ridge and Watie families, who had emigrated prior to the forced removal.

Ridge Party families fled Oklahoma and found refuge in what was then Nacogdoches County, Texas (in the area that later became known as the Mount Tabor Indian Community), near present-day Kilgore.

Rebecca Nagle, host of the award-winning This Land podcast, is a descendant of the Ridges and uses her ancestry to explore the ongoing toll their actions had.