- Treaty & boundary
- Early
- 1835-1839
- Fulton County
- General area only
New Echota and the Trail of Tears (1835-1838)
A small Treaty Party signed away all Cherokee land east of the Mississippi at New Echota on December 29, 1835, without the authority of the Cherokee government. In 1838-39 soldiers forced about 16,000 Cherokees west; about 4,000 died.
The record
The Senate ratified the treaty in May 1836 by a single vote; Principal Chief John Ross carried a petition with nearly 16,000 signatures against it to Congress in 1838 (Wikipedia; NGE). The treaty promised $5 million and land in Indian Territory. When the removal deadline passed in 1838, the Cherokee Nation says, 7,000 U.S. and Georgia Guard soldiers drove families from their homes at bayonet point into stockades before the march west. The Cherokee land across the river from Atlanta, today's Cobb County and the part of north Fulton above the river, had already been surveyed and distributed in Georgia's 1832 land and gold lotteries. NGE puts the deaths at 4,000-5,000; the Cherokee Nation says about 4,000 of an estimated 16,000.
Today: The Cherokee Nation is headquartered in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.
Where on the map: Cherokee Nation land lay west and northwest of the Chattahoochee from Buzzard Roost upstream: today's Cobb County and north Fulton above the river (1832 land and gold lottery districts).