The recreated Council House at New Echota
New Echota

In northwest Georgia, a few hundred yards away from the superhighway that connects Chattanooga to Atlanta, is an important place in Cherokee history. From 1825 until 1832, New Echota was the capital of the Cherokee nation. It was here that the Cherokee council met, that the Cherokee Supreme Court heard cases, and that the Cherokee Phoenix newspaper was first published. But it was also here that several Cherokee leaders signed the Treaty of New Echota -- the controversial document used by the American government to justify the removal now known as the Trail of Tears.
By the 1820s the Cherokee tribe owned the land shown with the number 36 on this map.
As we point out in the Eighth Grade text, the Cherokee tribe once ruled over a large part of the southeast United States. But as white settlers moved west and forced their way onto Cherokee land, Cherokee leaders signed away or sold large chunks of the land, sometimes under political or military pressure. As you can see from this map, by the 1820s the tribe only controlled part of what is now southeast Tennessee, southwest North Carolina, northeast Alabama and northwest Georgia.

A copy of the Cherokee Phoenix
In spite of the loss of so much of their land, most Cherokees assumed they would be allowed to stay in this section of the country forever. After all, they had co-existed peacefully with the American government ever since the Nickajack Expedition of 1794. Many Cherokees had fought for the American government, such as at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend against the Creeks. More importantly, the Cherokee nation had largely adopted white ways: becoming farmers, taking on a democratic form of government under a constitution, adopting Christianity, and even creating a written language. By the 1820s Cherokees were more likely to be literate in the Cherokee language than white settlers in this part of the country were to be literate in the English language. Cherokees frequently went to church. They even had a written newspaper, the Cherokee Phoenix.
A gold panner in North Georgia in the 19th century.
PHOTO: Georgia Department of Archives and History
In 1828, however, two things occurred that sealed the fate of the Cherokee nation east of the Mississippi River. First, gold was discovered on Cherokee land in Georgia, resulting in a massive encroachment by white settlers onto Cherokee property. Then, Andrew Jackson was elected president. Though he could be kind to individual Native Americans, Jackson did not believe Native American culture could coexist with the United States. He immediately pursued a policy of removal -- of forcing the Cherokees off their land and relocating them to points west of the Mississippi River.
The museum inside the visitor's center
New Echota is a (Georgia) state historic site. It contains a small museum where you can see displays and a short film that tells you the story of what occurred here. When you get here, take some time in the museum, then go on the self-guided walking tour that takes you through the re-created Cherokee capital.
The re-creation of the Cherokee Supreme Court Building
New Echota was named for Chota, a former Cherokee capital that is mostly buried by the waters of Tellico Lake, in Monroe County. One of the things a visit to New Echota brings alive is just how organized Cherokee government was by this time. When New Echota was the Cherokee capital, the Cherokees were ruled by a government laid out in a constitution (just like the U.S. government). To more efficiently run Cherokee affairs, Cherokee territory was divided into eight districts, each of which had equal representation (kind of like the states of the United States). The government had three branches: a bicameral legislative branch, an executive branch led by a principal chief, and a judicial branch ruled by a supreme court.
The print shop
At New Echota you will also find a re-creation of the print shop. It is, in hindsight, remarkable that the Cherokee nation adopted Sequoyah's syllabary so quickly. He finished creating it in 1821; only six years later editor Elias Boudinot began editing the Phoenix here at New Echota. In addition to the newspaper, many books were printed here -- most notably, the Bible (in Cherokee).

Here's what a common Cherokee farmstead would have looked like. Hundreds of homes similiar to this once stood throughout the Cherokee nation. The people who lived in these homes had small farms and typically grew vegetables, had small fruit orchards and often raised livestock.

The Worcester house
All the structures at New Echota are recreations, with one exception. Here you will find the house built and occupied by Samuel Worcester, a Presbyterian missionary from Vermont who came to minister to the Cherokees in 1825 and who remained with them for the rest of his life. Worcester was a loyal friend to the Cherokee nation who was imprisoned for his refusal to obey Georgia laws meant to force the Cherokees out of the state. In a famous legal decision known as Worcester v. Georgia, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Georgia did not have the right to have passed those laws, since the Cherokees were a nation holding distinct sovereign powers. However, President Andrew Jackson refused to enforce the Supreme Court's decision in this case.
Worcester
Worcester was forced out of the house in 1834, when it was became the property of a white Georgia citizen as the result of the lottery that divided up all Cherokee land in northwest Georgia. It was occupied by various families until the 1950s, when the state of Georgia purchased it and restored it.
The Boudinot house site
One structure that hasn't been re-created, at least not yet, is the Boudinot house. Cherokee Phoenix editor Elias Boudinot and his family lived here from 1827 until he left for Oklahoma in 1836. It was here that several Cherokee leaders, including Boudinot, Major Ridge and John Ridge, signed the Treaty of New Echota on December 29, 1835. The treaty purportedly traded all Cherokee land east of the Mississippi River for land in present-day Oklahoma. But it was never approved by the Cherokee legislature, never authorized by Cherokee principal chief John Ross, and considered fraudulent by most Cherokees. Boudinot, Major Ridge and John Ridge were all assassinated later for signing it.
New Town Creek at New Echota
In 1832 the Georgia legislature passed a law that banned the Cherokees from holding political meetings on Georgia soil. At that time the Cherokees moved their government to Red Clay, just across the Tennessee state line. New Echota became farmland, and remained so for more than a century. Finally, in the 1950s, the state of Georgia determined the exact location of New Echota, bought the site, began doing excavations there, and rebuilt several of the structures.

Click here to be taken to New Echota's official web site.
There are many other places on the Tennessee History for Kids web site that talk about Cherokees and their culture.
* Click here to read the part of the Eighth Grade Text that talks about the Trail of Tears
* Click here to be taken to the virtual tour of the Cherokee Indian Museum in North Carolina
* Click here to be taken to the virtual tour of Red Clay State Historic Park.
* Click here to take the virtual tour of Sycamore Shoals State Historic Park
* Click here to read about John Ross; here to read about Nancy Ward
* Click here to read the remarkable story of Joseph Brown, who participated in the Nickajack Expedition against the Chickagaugans
* We don't usually link to outside sources, but click here to be taken to the online edition of the Cherokee Phoenix newspaper (which is still published)

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