This Day in Cherokee Nation History

This Day in Cherokee Nation History: January 27, 1824 - John Ridge and Sarah Bird Northrup are married in Cornwall, Connecticut. The marriage created quite a controversy and outraged many of the townspeople because John was Cherokee and Sarah was white. Although intermarriage was common among the Cherokees at this time, it usually occurred between a Cherokee woman and a white man. This was because of the matrilineal kinship clan system of the Cherokee; meaning children are born to the clan of their mother. Children born to Cherokee fathers and white mothers did not receive full status as Cherokee citizens until the tribe's National Council passed a law in 1825 that granted this. John came from a prominent Cherokee family and was the son of Major Ridge, a well-known Cherokee leader and war hero. He met Sarah while attending the Foreign Mission School at Cornwall, CT where her father was a steward. Soon after their marriage, they returned to Cherokee Nation and settled in Georgia. John was elected to the Cherokee National Council and later became a member of the "Treaty Party." To learn more about the lives of John Ridge and Sarah Bird Northrup Ridge, visit the links below: