Cherokee Tragedy: The Ridge Family and the Decimation of a People (Volume 169)

by Thurman Wilkins

Beginning with the birth of the Cherokee patriarch Major Ridge in the 1770’s, Thurman Wilkins tells the events that led to the Trail of Tears, through the eyes of the illustrious Ridge family. Major Ridge and his Connecticut-educated son John were willing to abandon the rich tribal homelands in North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia and emigrate west to the Indian Territory to escape the white invaders.

During the decades of fruitless negotiations that culminated in the infamous Treaty of New Echota, Georgia, in 1835, the Ridges and their relatives Elias Boudinot and Stand Watie became persuaded that further protests by the Cherokees would lead only to their annihilation at the hands of the whites. The pro-treaty Ridge faction was opposed by fiery John Ross, the leader of the majority National Party, who wanted to stay and fight in the Southeast against all odds.

In this revised edition of his great work, Thurman Wilkins addresses the new scholarship of the past fifteen years and reconsiders the important questions raised by Cherokee history aficionados: Were Major Ridge and John Ridge paid off by the United States for their support of removal? If not, how did these Cherokee patriots come to change their minds about emigrating west? Was Chief John Ross a hero or a villain?

Since Cherokee Tragedy was first published in 1970, it has been valued as a penetrating social and political history of neither the whole Cherokee Nation-nor just the Ridge family- from the last quarter of the eighteenth century to the 1838 Trail of Tears and the subsequent “execution” of the Ridges in Indian Territory.

Genres: History, Native American, Indigenous, Historical, Nonfiction

432 pages, Paperback

First published March 31, 1986

Reviews

[Nathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite its lurid title, the book really focuses on the lives of Major and John Ridge. Any account of their lives is inevitably also going to be about the Trail of Tears, but this book chooses to focus mostly on the earlier parts of their lives, even going into details of John Ridge's marriage to his wife. Of course, given that these men were two of the most important Cherokee leaders of the day, much of the account is political in nature. The text can get pretty dry.

All in all, I'd call it a pretty good read, but I do have one big reservation about it. For some reason, the author felt the need to approach the Ross/Ridge divide as a partisan for the Ridges and he is unrelenting both in his defense of the Ridges and his criticism of John Ross. This bias got entirely too intrusive by the end of the book. Even if the author believed in the rightness of the Ridges' actions, he had no place fighting the Ross/Ridge battle in his book, which should have been an impartial history of the men.

Still, it's not a bad addition to the knowledge of anyone who's serious about knowing Cherokee history, so I'd recommend it.

[Dawn Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent resource for anyone wanting to understand the background, people, and political events that led up to the Trail of Tears. It contains historical information on the events, as well as information about the culture, language, and beliefs of the Cherokee people at that time that proved relevant to the events the author shares throughout. I couldn't use it as an entirely standalone source of information for my research, but it provided the biggest chunk of it that I needed.

[Courtney Chase · Rating 1 out of 5]

Added this one for you, Amy. They're still tragic. Might be the longest book I ever read.