<P> Around 1809 Sequoyah began developing a written form of the Cherokee language . He spoke no English, but his experiences as a silversmith dealing regularly with white settlers, and as a warrior at Horseshoe Bend, convinced him the Cherokee needed to develop writing . In 1821, he introduced Cherokee syllabary, the first written syllabic form of an American Indian language outside of Central America . Initially his innovation was opposed by both Cherokee traditionalists and white missionaries, who sought to encourage the use of English . When Sequoyah taught children to read and write with the syllabary, he reached the adults . By the 1820s, the Cherokee had a higher rate of literacy than the whites around them in Georgia . </P> <P> In 1819, the Cherokee began holding council meetings at New Town, at the headwaters of the Oostanaula (near present - day Calhoun, Georgia). In November 1825, New Town became the capital of the Cherokee Nation, and was renamed New Echota, after the Overhill Cherokee principal town of Chota . Sequoyah's syllabary was adopted . They had developed a police force, a judicial system, and a National Committee . </P> <P> In 1827, the Cherokee Nation drafted a Constitution modeled on the United States, with executive, legislative and judicial branches and a system of checks and balances . The two - tiered legislature was led by Major Ridge and his son John Ridge . Convinced the tribe's survival required English - speaking leaders who could negotiate with the U.S., the legislature appointed John Ross as Principal Chief . A printing press was established at New Echota by the Vermont missionary Samuel Worcester and Major Ridge's nephew Elias Boudinot, who had taken the name of his white benefactor, a leader of the Continental Congress and New Jersey Congressman . They translated the Bible into Cherokee syllabary . Boudinot published the first edition of the bilingual' Cherokee Phoenix,' the first American Indian newspaper, in February 1828 . </P> <P> Before the final removal to present - day Oklahoma, many Cherokees relocated to present - day Arkansas, Missouri and Texas . Between 1775 and 1786 the Cherokee, along with people of other nations such as the Choctaw and Chickasaw, began voluntarily settling along the Arkansas and Red Rivers . </P>

In 1827 the cherokee tribe of georgia wrote a constitution modeled on what document