This book is a historical account of the life of William P. Ross, who served as the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation during a crucial period in its history. The author describes Ross's childhood, education, and political career, as well as his role in the Civil War and the Reconstruction era. This book is an important contribution to the history of the Cherokee Nation and the American South. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Ross was Chief Executive of the Cherokee Nation. Contains many of his addresses condemning the white "invasion" of Oklahoma. William P. Ross (1820-1891) was an eminent Cherokee statesman and a worthy successor to his distinguished uncle John Ross (1790-1866). He was a newspaper editor (The Cherokee Advocate, The Indian Journal, and others), a merchant, a lawyer, an envoy to Washington, and principal chief, among his numerous activities. This memorial volume contains a sketch of his life, many letters of tribute, and a quantity of his speeches, papers, and legal arguments.

Historian Frederick E. Hoxie presents the story of two hundred years of Native American political activism. Highlighting the activists -- some famous and some unknown beyond their own communities -- who have sought to bridge the distance between indigenous cultures and the U.S. republic through legal and political campaigns, Hoxie weaves a narrative connecting the individual to the tribe, the tribe to the nation, and the nation to broader historical processes and progressive movements.

Excerpt from The Life and Times of Hon. William P. Ross W. P. Ross entered Hamil's preparatory school, and in 1842 graduated at Princeton College with the honors of his class of forty-four young men from nearly every state in the American Union. Princeton is one of the oldest and best institutions of learning in the United States. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Recounts the life of Chief John Ross of the Cherokees using Ross' personal papers and Cherokee archives as sources.

Of the Five Civilized Tribes of Indians the Cherokees were early recognized as the greatest and the most civilized. Indeed, between 1540 and 1906 they reached a higher peak of civilization than any other North American Indian tribe. They invented a syllabary and developed an intricate government, including a system of courts of law. They published their own newspaper in both Cherokee and English and became noted as orators and statesmen. At the beginning the Cherokees’ conquest of civilization was agonizingly slow and uncertain. Warlords of the southern Appalachian Highlands, they were loath to expend their energies elsewhere. In the words of a British officer, "They are like the Devil’s pigg, they will neither lead nor drive." But, led or driven, the warlike and willful Cherokees, lingering in the Stone Age by choice at the turn of the eighteenth century, were forced by circumstances to transfer their concentration on war to problems posed by the white man. To cope with these unwelcome problems, they had to turn from the conquests of war to the conquest of civilization.