Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep's new book examines a dark chapter in American history: the Cherokee Trail of Tears and the chief who used the tools of democracy to try to protect his people.

The Cherokee nation was one of the "Five Civilized Tribes" in the southeast, and Andrew Jackson planned their removal along with all other tribes existing east of the Mississippi River. Chief John ...

John Ross made an unlikely looking Cherokee chief. Born in 1790 to a Scottish trader and a woman of Indian and European heritage, he was only one-eighth Cherokee by blood.

John Ross, long-time leader of the Cherokee Nation, was born on Oct. 3, 1790, in Cherokee territory now part of Alabama.

Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep's new book examines a dark chapter in American history: the Cherokee Trail of Tears and the chief who used the tools of democracy to try to protect his people.