John Ross will learn how to conduct…

John Ross will learn how to conduct negotiations with the United States and the skills required to run a national government during a period of political apprenticeship from 1812 to 1827.

In November 1818, on the eve of the General Council meeting with the U.S. Indian agent Joseph McMinn, who deals with the Cherokee, Ross had been elevated to the presidency of the National Committee, a position he will hold through 1827.

The Council had selected Ross because they perceive him to have the diplomatic skill necessary to rebuff U.S. requests to cede Cherokee lands.

In this task, Ross does not disappointed the Council.

McMinn offers two hundred thousand dollars for removal of the Cherokee beyond the Mississippi, which Ross refuses.

Ross's political career as a Cherokee legislator and diplomat had progressed after 1814 with the support of individuals such as the Principal Chief Pathkiller, Assistant Principal Chief Charles R. Hicks, and Casey Holmes, an elder statesman of the Cherokee Nation, as well as the women elders of his clan.

As relations with the United States were becoming more complex by 1813, older, uneducated chiefs such as Pathkiller could not effectively defend Cherokee interests.

The de facto authority in the Cherokee Nation had shifted after 1813 to Hicks, who is the first chief of partial European descent.

Pathkiller will remain chief (in title only) through 1827, as a kind of figurehead.

The ascendancy of Ross represents Cherokee recognition that an educated, English-speaking leadership is of national importance.

Both Pathkiller and Hicks believe Ross could be a future leader of the Cherokee Nation; they have trained him for this work.

Ross shad served as clerk to Pathkiller and Hicks, working on all financial and political matters of the nation.

They have also steeped him in Cherokee tradition.

In a series of letters to Ross, Hicks had outlined what was known of Cherokee traditions.

In 1816, the National Council had named Ross to his first delegation to Washington.

The delegation of 1816 was directed to resolve the sensitive issues of national boundaries, land ownership, and white encroachment on Cherokee land.

Of the delegates, only Ross was fluent in English, making him the central figure in the negotiations.

This was a unique position for a young man in Cherokee society, which traditionally favored older leaders.

The Cherokee had formed the National Council in November 1817, created to consolidate Cherokee political authority after General Jackson made two treaties with small cliques of Cherokee representing minority factions.

Ross had been elected to the thirteen-member body, where each man serves two-year terms.

Membership in the National Council places Ross among the ruling elite of the Cherokee leadership.

The majority of the men are wealthy, mixed-race and English-speaking, unlike most of the Cherokee, who still speak only Cherokee.