Jesse Bushyhead ( 1804 – 1844 ) was a Cherokee religious and political leader , and a Baptist minister . He was born near the present-day town of Cleveland , Tennessee . His Cherokee name was '' Unaduti '' . As a young man , he was ordained a Baptist minister . A member of the John Ross faction of the Cherokee , he was dispatched by Ross in 1837 on a mission to the Seminole . Although Bushyhead opposed the federal policy forcing Indian Removal to west of the Mississippi River , he accepted the inevitable and led a party of about 1,000 people on the Trail of Tears . On his arrival in 1839 near present-day Westville , Oklahoma , he established the Baptist Mission . This marked the end of the Cherokee Trail of Tears . He became chief justice of the Cherokee nation in 1840 and remained in that office until his death . His eldest son , Dennis Bushyhead , held several offices in the Cherokee Nation , including as Principal Chief . He served from 1879 to 1887
Trail of Tears
Trail of Tears
Jesse Bushyhead