Red Clay Council Ground

Georgia stripped the Cherokee Nation of its sovereignty in 1832 and made it illegal for Cherokee people to meet except to sign away land, so the capital moved from New Echota to Red Clay, then on the Tennessee side of the line. Eleven general councils met here from 1832 to 1837, some drawing five thousand people. In March 1838 a young woman, Jane Bushyhead, wrote from Red Clay that Cherokees were to be driven west "by the cruel hand of oppression." The council learned here that it must leave on the Trail Where They Cried.

What the plaque says

Red Clay Council Ground One mile west was this Cherokee council ground. Here was held the last council between the United States and the Cherokee nation, preceding the removal of the Indians to Indian Territory, now Oklahoma. John Howard Payne, author of "Home, Sweet Home," and a champion of Indian rights, attended this council.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Red Clay State Historic Park — 1.0 mi
  The last seat of the Cherokee Nation before removal, where eleven general councils met from 1832 to 1837, now a state park with a council house replica, a sacred spring and an eternal flame.
• Bessie Smith Cultural Center — 22 mi
  Chattanooga's African American museum and performance hall on the old Ninth Street, named for the Empress of the Blues, who started out singing for change on that same street.
• Walnut Street Bridge — 22 mi
  An 1890 truss bridge now open to walkers, and the place where Alfred Blount in 1893 and Ed Johnson in 1906 were lynched, the case that led to the Supreme Court's only criminal trial.
• Tennessee Aquarium — 22 mi
  A river-themed aquarium that opened on May 1, 1992, on the Chattanooga bank where John Ross kept a trading post, tracing a raindrop from the Appalachians to the Gulf.

More markers nearby

• Cherokee History — 2.7 mi
• Lost County of Tennessee: The County of James — 9.2 mi
• Cleveland During the Civil War — 12 mi
• Marr's Fort — 12 mi