First elected Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation in 1828, John Ross served his people with courage and honor through a difficult and tragic period in their history. Born in 1790, he grew up when the Cherokees' world was rapidly changing and treaties with federal and state governments ended in broken promises and the loss of Cherokee lands. He was influential during the time when the Cherokees created a strong central government and constitution, placed a high priority on education, and established a national press. He lead the long, ultimately unsuccessful struggle to maintain the Cherokee homelands in Georgia, heading delegations to Washington and appealing the Cherokee case before the U.S. Supreme Court. He lead the faction, known as the National Party, which opposed the resettlement of the Cherokee Nation in the Indian Territory of Oklahoma and was among those Cherokees forced by U.S. troops to move west in 1838 on the journey known as the Trail of Tears, during which nearly one-fourth of the Cherokee Nation died. Although there was dissention in Oklahoma between the National Party and the Treaty Party, which had backed the sale of Cherokee lands, John Ross was again elected Principal Chief, this time of the Cherokee Nation in the West, a position he held throughout the Civil War and until his death in 1866. (JH)