1773 - Cherokees sign Treaty of Augusta ceding 2,000,000 acres of Cherokee land in Georgia to relieve indebtedness to white settlers.
First cession of Cherokee land in Georgia.
1782 - Colonel Pickens destroys Long Swamp village and forces the Cherokee to cede land to settlers.
1786 - Treaty of Hopewell (SC) The Cherokee thought this would be the end of the settlers' invasion of Cherokee land. Within 3 years bitter fighting had erupted as settlers continued to move into the Cherokee Nation. This treaty is the basis for the term "Talking Leaves," the name of the tribe's written language. The Cherokee felt that written words were like leaves, when they were no longer of use they withered and died.
July 2 1791 - Treaty of Holston: President Washington agrees that Americans must obtain passports to enter Cherokee lands. Cherokee granted right to evict settlers. In exchange, Cherokee cede land in eastern Tennessee.
1794 - Treaty of Philadelphia
1798 - Tellico Treaty
1802 - President Thomas Jefferson agrees with the state of Georgia to removal of all American Indians in exchange for the state's claim of western lands.
1804 - Cherokee cede Wafford's Tract.
1805 -
1806 - The final cession of ten million acres by Doublehead.
1805-1832--Land Lotteries divide Cherokee territory among whites.
1814 - Jackson demands cessions of 2.2 million acres from the Cherokee.
1816-1817 Four treaties signed during 1816 and 1817.
1817 - Cession of land east of the Unicoi Turnpike. (Treaty of Turkey Town, instead of the 2.2 million acres demanded by Jackson.)
1819 - Final cession of land in Georgia, and part of a much larger cession, the Cherokee give up claims to all land east of the Chattahoochee River.
1830 - Passage of the Indian Removal Act.
December 29, 1835 - Treaty of New Echota signed in Elias Boudinot's home by members of the Treaty Party. 350 Cherokee signed this treaty out of 17,000. John Ross gathered 16,000 Cherokee signatures in protest, to no avail. Doublehead was later assassinated by Major Ridge (Kahnungdatlageh -"the man who walks the mountain top"),James Vann and Alexander Saunders as a traitor for signing this treaty.
May 23, 1838 - Deadline for voluntary removal. Georgia Guard had begun round-up 5 days earlier. U. S. forces under command of Winfield Scott begin roundup in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, and North Carolina. Cherokee are herded into "forts," gradually making their way north to the Cherokee Agency (Rattlesnake Springs) or Ross's Landing in southeastern Tennessee. This is generally recognized as the beginning of The Cherokee Trail of Tears
Little Carpenter, Peace Chief of the Cherokee, 1699-1797
According to his son, Turtle At Home, his father was originally a Mishwakihha, one of the divisions of the Nipissing Indians, and had been captured as an infant and adopted by the Cherokees.
Tsi'yu-gunsini - Dragging Canoe, Chickamaugas Chief Tsi'yu-gunsini was a war leader who led a dissident band of young Cherokees against the United States in the American Revolutionary War. Dragging Canoe is considered by many to be the most significant leader of the Southeast, and provided a significant role model for the younger Tecumseh, who was a member of a band of Shawnee living with the Chickamaugas and taking part in their wars.
