Return J. Meigs, Sr..

About Return J. Meigs, Sr.

Return Jonathan Meigs was a colonel in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, and an early settler of the Northwest Territory. From 1801 until his death in 1823, he served as an Indian agent to the Cherokee Indians in the southern Appalachian Mountains. Meigs was a conscientious and efficient agent in some respects, but also persuaded and bribed Cherokee leaders to cede much of their land to the United States. The land cessions were controversial, opposed by most Cherokee, and were a prelude to the Trail of Tears when the Cherokee were forced to leave their homeland and settle in Oklahoma.