Directions: Read the following primary source documents from major figures involved in the Trail of Tears. Answer the questions that follow each reading.

John Ross, the principal Cherokee chief, was a leading opponent of Indian removal.
Born on October 3, 1790, Ross' Cherokee name was Tsan-Usdi, which means Little John. He became Chief of the United Cherokee Nation.
Ross made repeated trips to Washington as a representative of the Cherokee people, and he even successfully argued the tribe's case before the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Cherokee people, but President Andrew Jackson refused to send troops to protect the American Indians on their homeland.
“Ever since [the whites came] we have been made to drink of the bitter cup of humiliation; treated like dogs...our country and the graves of our Fathers torn from us...through a period of upwards of 200 years, rolled back, nation upon nation [until] we find ourselves fugitives, vagrants and strangers in our own country....
The existence of the Indian nations as distinct independent communities within the limits of the United States seems to be drawing to a close.... You are aware that our Brethren, the Choctaws, Chickasaws and Creeks of the South have severally disposed of their country to the United States and that a portion of our own Tribe have also emigrated West of the Mississippi--but that the largest portion of our Nation still remain firmly upon our ancient domain....Our position there may be compared to a solitary tree in an open space, where all the forest trees around have been prostrated by a furious tornado.”

-How does John Ross see the Cherokee people?

-Why is he reluctant to go west of the Mississippi?