CHIEFTAINS MUSEUM/MAJOR RIDGE HOME HOSTS TRAVELING EXHIBITION ON LEGAL ASPECTS OF CHEROKEE REMOVAL IN GEORGIA

(Media release from Chieftains Museum/Major Ridge Home):

Chieftains Museum is honored to work with the Northeast Georgia History Center to bring back an exhibit which highlights an often- forgotten part of Cherokee history—the legal aspects of Indian Removal.

Originally on display for the Chieftains Museum/Major Ridge Home 200th Anniversary in 2019, this traveling exhibit explores the legal arguments for and against the removal of the Cherokee in Georgia, illustrating the lengths that the United States and state governments would go to remove native people from their homeland.

Featured in the exhibit are three Supreme Court cases that paved the way for Cherokee Removal from Georgia—Georgia v. TasselCherokee Nation v. Georgia, and Worcester v. Georgia. All three of these cases illustrated the divergent opinions on the rights of Cherokees living in Georgia and explain a pattern of rulings that helped influence the approval of the Treaty of New Echota that led to the loss of homes, lives, and property for the Cherokee in the east.

The exhibit was originally funded through a grant from the Georgia Humanities Council to travel throughout the state and was created through a partnership with the Northeast Georgia History Center in Gainesville and Chieftains Museum/Major Ridge Home.

It is impossible to destroy men with more respect for the laws of humanity’: Court Cases of Cherokee Removal in Georgia will be on display at Chieftains Museum through the end of July 2022. Visitors to the museum can view this exhibit as part of their regular museum admission; $10 for adults, $5 for seniors age 62+ and $5 for students. The museum is open Thursday-Saturday from 10am-4pm with the exceptions of holidays or special events.

For more information on the exhibition and other museum events, contact the museum at (706) 291-9494 or visit. www.chieftainsmuseum.org.