John Ross (Cherokee: ?????, romanized: Guwisguwi, lit.?’Mysterious Little White Bird’; October 3, 1790 – August 1, 1866) was the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation from 1828 to 1866; he served longer in that position than any other person. Ross led the nation through such tumultuous events as forced removal to Indian Territory and the American Civil War. Ross was of Euro-Indigenous American descent. His father was a European man from Highland, Scotland. His mother was a Euro-Indigenous American woman from the Cherokee Nation. Ross’s parents sent him for formal schooling to institutions that served other bicultural Cherokee people. At the age of twenty, Ross was appointed as a US Indian agent in 1811. During the War of 1812, he served as adjutant of a Cherokee regiment under the command of European-American general, Andrew Jackson. After the end of the Red Stick War, Ross started a tobacco plantation in Tennessee. In 1816, he built a warehouse and trading post on the Tennessee River north of the mouth of Chattanooga Creek, and started a ferry service that carried passengers across the river. Concurrently, Ross developed a keen interest in Cherokee politics and attracted the attention of the Cherokee elders, especially Principal Chiefs Pathkiller and Charles R. Hicks. Together with Major Ridge, they became his political mentors.
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