ROSS, JOHN, or KOOESKOOWE (179o-1866), chief of the Cherokee Indian nation, was of Scottish-Indian descent, born among the Cherokees in Georgia in 1790. He was principal chief from 1828 until his death. In 1830-31 he applied to the Supreme Court of the U.S. for an injunction restraining the State of Geor gia from executing its laws within the Cherokee territory, but the court dismissed his suit on the ground that it had no jurisdiction. A small party among the Cherokees under the leadership of John Ridge, a subchief, were disposed to treat with the U.S. for the removal of their nation west of the Mississippi, and in Feb. 1835, while Ridge was negotiating at Washington, Ross proposed to cede the Cherokee lands to the U.S. for $20,000,000. The U.S. Senate resolved that $5,000,000 was sufficient. Both the Ridge treaty and the $5,000,000 proposal were rejected in a full council of the Cherokees Oct. 1835. The council authorized Ross to renew negotiations, but before leaving for Washington he was arrested by the Georgia authorities on the ground that he was a white man residing in the Indian country contrary to law. He was soon released, but in December of this year a few hundred Cherokees concluded a treaty of removal with the U.S. Indian commissioner
at New Echota. When Ross learned this he called a council in Feb. 1836, and at this meeting the treaty was declared null and void and a protest against the proceedings at New Echota was signed by more than 12,000 Cherokees. Notwithstanding Ross's opposition, the Senate in the following May ratified the treaty and in Dec. 1838, Ross, with the last party of Cherokees, left for the West (see GEORGIA) . During the Civil War, Ross signed a treaty with the Confederate States in Oct. 1861, but in the sum mer of 1862 was forced (by Union sympathizers in the nation) to proclaim neutrality and soon afterwards went over to the Union lines. He was in Washington treating with the Federal Government in Feb. 1863 when the treaty with the Confederate States was abrogated by the Cherokees. He died at Washington on Aug. I, 1866.
See C. C. Royce, "The Cherokee Nation of Indians" in the Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (1887), and T. V. Parker, The Cherokee Indians (New York, 1907).