Page "Cherokee" Paragraph 36

The Cherokee allied with the U. S. against the nativist and pro-British Red Stick faction of the Upper Creek in the Creek War during the War of 1812, and Cherokee warriors led by Major Ridge played a major role in General Andrew Jackson's victory at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend.

Major Ridge moved his family to Rome, Georgia, where he built a substantial house, developed a large plantation and ran a ferry on the Oostanaula River.

Although he never learned English, he educated his son and nephews in New England mission schools.

His interpreter and protégé Chief John Ross, the descendant of several generations of Cherokee women and Scots fur-traders, built a plantation and operated a trading firm and a ferry at Ross ' Landing ( Chattanooga, Tennessee ).

During this period, divisions arose between the acculturated elite and the great majority of Cherokee, who clung to traditional ways of life.