Native American History Native American History group rates for
schools and districts  Politics in Native American History
Looking at the Past Through the Lens of Politics  Three
"Traitors" are Executed  At dawn, the young Cherokee John Ridge
was pulled from his bed and stabbed to death while his wife and
children looked on in horror. A few hours later, his father,
Major Ridge, was shot and killed while out for a morning ride.
Almost simultaneously, Elias Boudinot, the Ridges' relative, was
attacked by three men and clubbed to death with hatchets.  The
assassins were never identified, but everyone knew that the
three victims had been "executed" for their "treasonous" signing
of the Treaty of New Echota in 1835. Part of President Andrew
Jackson's campaign to remove all Indians east of the Mississippi
River, this treaty arranged for the relocation of the Cherokee,
the last large tribe remaining in the Southeast. But the
agreement was not easily reached or universally accepted. In
fact, the great majority of Ch