page_title: Sovereignty (play)
section_title: Historical background
hierarchical_section_title: Sovereignty (play) / Historical background
caption_attribution_description: Original Caption: The Cherokee who did not support the New Echota Treaty, which stripped the tribe of their land and rights and eventually led to the Trail of Tears, sent this petition to the Senate in 1836. U.S. National Archives’ Local Identifier: SEN24B-C4 From:: Records Relating to Treaties with Indian Tribes, compiled 1789 - 1871 Created By:: U.S. Senate. (03/04/1789 - ) Production Date: 1836 Persistent URL: arcweb.archives.gov/arc/action/ExternalIdSearch?id=2127291 Repository: Center for Legislative Archives (NWL), National Archives Building Reproductions may be ordered via an independent vendor. NARA maintains a list of vendors at www.archives.gov/research/order/vendors-photos-maps-dc.html Access Restrictions: Unrestricted Use Restrictions: Unrestricted
context_page_description: Sovereignty is a play written by American lawyer and playwright Mary Kathryn Nagle. The play revolves around Cherokee lawyer Sarah Ridge Polson's battle to reinstate the Cherokee Nation's sovereignty and jurisdiction. She also must face the ghosts of her ancestors and the struggles they faced when signing a decisive treaty that led to the removal of the Nation from their land.
context_section_description: Sovereignty alternates between the 1830s and present-day America. The present-day story follows Polson and her return to the Cherokee Nation to help Native American women who have been sexually harassed through the Violence Against Women Act. The only issue is that Polson is a descendant of the Ridge family, the infamous Cherokee family who signed the Treaty of New Echota which transferred Cherokee land to the United States for the state of Georgia. The treaty led to the relocation of the Cherokee people in the land to Oklahoma, contributing to what is known as the Trail of Tears. Polson's family members are buried in a family cemetery in the Oklahoma reservation.
  The Treaty of New Echota, the treaty which the Ridges signed, was signed on December 29th, 1835. The treaty ceded all Cherokee lands east of the Mississippi River to the United States and promised a perpetual opportunity of expansion for the Nation west. The signing of the treaty was controversial within the Cherokee Nation, as people were both in favor and opposition of the treaty. Major Ridge and his son, John Ridge, were members of what was known as the "Treaty Party," which was the group of Cherokees who saw the removal from their land as inevitable and believed they should negotiate and cooperate. Other Cherokee members were vehemently opposed to the signing because they did not want to leave their land. This polarized climate is a major detail in the familial context of the lawyer, Sarah Polson, in the play. Due to the conflict over the treaty, Cherokee tribesmen assassinated Major and John Ridge in 1839 as a form of political retribution.
caption: The Cherokee who did not support the New Echota Treaty sent this petition to the Senate in 1836.
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