Noted National Public Radio “Morning Edition” host Steve Inskeep has recently written a book about Andrew Jackson and pioneering area resident John Ross and their confrontations about the Cherokee Removal in the early 1800s.
But until he began researching the book, “Jacksonland: President Andrew Jackson, Cherokee Chief John Ross, and a Great American Land Grab,” he had never heard of Mr. Ross, he told a Knoxville audience Tuesday night.
But Mr. Inskeep quickly grew to admire the man who founded Ross’s Landing and built a trading post in 1816 and later became chief of the Cherokees as a descendant of both the Indians and Scottish families.
“He is known around Chattanooga but not to the rest of the country, not to me,” said Mr. Inskeep during a talk to a packed house of more than 750 people at the Bijou Theatre in downtown Knoxville. “But I soon began to know he was a fascinating character.”
Mr. Inskeep’s book, which has been receiving a lot of national attention and which he signed copies of following his talk, looks in detail at the lives of President Jackson and Chief Ross, and the events that eventually led to the removal of the Cherokees.
Jacksonland is what he calls the former Indian land in the South that was taken over by the United States through President Jackson’s efforts.
Of Chief Ross, for whom Rossville and the Chief John Ross (Market Street) Bridge are named, Mr. Inskeep said he had the ideal skills to lead the Cherokees in their diplomatic and legal efforts to hold on to their land at that time.
“His skills were perfectly made for that moment,” Mr. Inskeep said. “John Ross’ skills as an English speaker were well placed at that time.”
But while everyone knew what President Jackson stood for as a tough-minded individual wanting to do what he thought was right, Chief Ross used both his white and Indian personas interchangeably depending on the circumstances.
“Ross was harder to characterize,” he said, adding that Chief Ross actually served in President Jackson’s Army before their later confrontations.
While the Trail of Tears that resulted in the Cherokees’ removal was one of hardship, Mr. Inskeep added that it has not been a totally sad story, as 15,000 members of the Eastern Band of the Cherokees still survive in places like Cherokee, N.C. That was the same number of total Cherokees at the time of their removal.
“This is a story of persistence,” he said.
Mr. Inskeep in his talk compared the efforts of the Indians to hang on to their lands as being in some respects like the civil rights movement of the mid-20th century in that both used the democratic tools available at the time to support their causes.
Jcshearer2@comcast.net