John Ridge (ᏍᎦᏟᎶᏍᎩ) is remembered as a primary figure in Cherokee Nation’s fight for tribal sovereignty. As the United States pressured the tribe to abandon its southeastern homelands, Cherokee leaders relied on Ridge and other young men educated in the ways of American society and laws to fight against removal. As the encroachment of European settlers and violent oppression of Cherokee people escalated, Ridge advocated for negotiation with the US because he believed that removal to the West was the only way Cherokee Nation would survive. Ridge was among the self-appointed Cherokee men who signed the 1835 Treaty of New Echota, which led to Cherokee Nation’s expulsion from its land. Approximately 4,000 Cherokees died during the removal. Ridge; his father, Major Ridge; and his cousin, Elias Boudinot, were killed in 1839 in the present-day Cherokee Nation Reservation as revenge. Text written by Karen Shade-Lanier, Exhibits Manager, Cherokee Nation