Ross John 1790 - 1866 Cherokee Chief John Ross signs a document relating to education Oblong half sheet of pale blue lined notebook paper measuring 7.875" H x 5.375" W. Recto inscribed entirely in the beautiful script of John Ross, with signature "Jn. Rofs" embellished by several tightly looped flourishes located lower left. Docket verso reads "Rec Payment Nov 26 1856, C.H. Campbell". Small hole located at center only affecting text, with a few isolated ink runs or water spots scattered throughout. This document was written by John Ross, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, on October 31, 1856 from the tribal capital of Tahlequah, Oklahoma. In it, Ross pledges that $67.50 will be paid to Charles H. Campbell to constitute the monthly salary of a first assistant teacher at the male seminary. Around 1850, the annual salary of a Cherokee Nation seminary school principal was $800 while the annual salary of an associate was about $600. The text in full is as follows: Executive Department October 31, 1856 Lewis, Rofs Eqr. National Treasurer Will pay to the order of Charles H. Campbell the sum of Sixty Seven Dollars fifty cents out of the Genl. School fund for four weeks & a half serving as first Af. Teacher the Male Seminary, as pr. Certificate of W.P. Rofs Clk of the Board of Directors & this shall be your memorandum for the same. $67.50 Yrs tc. Jn Rofs The Treaty of New Echota (1835) forcibly removed most Cherokees from their ancestral lands in the southeastern United States to a reservation located in northeastern Oklahoma. As part of this treaty, the federal government was mandated to provide monies to the relocated Cherokees for a school fund. Some of the $150,000 contributed by the federal government went towards the construction of a male and female seminary for Cherokee children. Both seminaries were constructed in the early 1850s, located just a couple of miles from Tahlequah. The tribal nation directly hired male and female teachers to staff their new schools, recruiting instructors from Mount Holyoke College (South Hadley, MA) and Yale University (New Haven, CT) among other institutions. John Ross (1790-1866) served as the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation for almost forty years. The son of a Scottish father, Ross quickly became an invaluable English-speaking advocate for the Cherokee Nation first as an agent and later as a delegate to Washington, DC during the 1810s. In 1817, Ross was elected to the Cherokee Nation National Council; he served as council president before being elected as Principal Chief in the autumn of 1828. Ross, along with other Cherokees who resisted the federal government's efforts to evict them, formed the "National Party" while Major Ridge and others of the "Treaty Party" favored negotiations that would ensure the most advantageous resettlement. The forced removal of the Cherokee Nation came to be known as the Trail of Tears, and indeed, John Ross's first wife Quatie died during the march. Once in Oklahoma, Ross shepherded the Nation through the first traumatic years of resettlement up until the Civil War.

7.875 x 5.375 in