In a time of crisis, the National Cherokee Council named Hicks the interim Principal Chief in October 1827.
He was of mixed race and supported European-American education for his and other Cherokee children, as well as the opening of a mission and school in the valley.
William Hicks developed a farm in the valley of the Oothkalooga Creek, along with Cherokee leader and neighbor, Major Ridge, and turned it into a recognized "garden spot" (near present-day Calhoun in Gordon County, Georgia).
About 1822 Ridge and Hicks urged Father Gambold to open a mission at Oothkalooga (Ustinali) and establish a missionary school, as they had more children to be educated.
[1] William's older brother, Charles, was the assistant to Principal Chief Pathkiller, who held that title from 1811 to 1827, but was in fact, after 1813, the head of the people in name only.
[2] Perhaps because the adoption of a new constitution had provoked an outcry from representatives of bordering states, the tribe was under tremendous pressure to make additional land cessions to Georgia and North Carolina.
[2] In December 1827, Georgia made an appeal to President John Quincy Adams, and claimed that Cherokee territory was under its jurisdiction.
He was of European and Cherokee ancestry, and had been educated in American schools, was bilingual, and was among the mixed-race elite leaders of the tribe, who were more acculturated to European-American ways.