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Twenty Cherokee men signed away 7 million acres and the future of 16,000 people.
1835 Event

December 29

Treaty of New Echota: Cherokee Cede All Eastern Lands, Trail of Tears Follows

Twenty Cherokee men signed away 7 million acres and the future of 16,000 people. The vast majority of Cherokee never agreed — Principal Chief John Ross fought it, the Cherokee National Council rejected it, and over 15,000 Cherokee signed petitions against it. Didn't matter. The U.S. Senate ratified it by a single vote. Three years later, soldiers rounded up families from their farms and forced them west. Four thousand died on that march. The men who signed? Three of the leaders were executed by their own people in 1839, the penalty under Cherokee law for selling tribal land without authorization.

December 29, 1835

191 years ago

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