John Rogers was the last elected Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation West elected in December 1838 by the faction of Old Settlers who rejected the Cherokee Nation constitution of 1839.

Family and early life

Rogers was the son of John Rogers and Elizabeth Due (née Emory) and a relative of previous Cherokee Nation West principal chiefs John Jolly. He was born in Burke County, Georgia, in 1779. He commanded a Cherokee unit during the Creek War under General Andrew Jackson, reaching the rank of captain. He married Elizabeth Coody. William Charles Rogers was his grandson.

Traveling and settling west

Rogers left with the Old Settlers and first settled in Dardanelle, Arkansas, and later Mulberry, Arkansas. He was a member of the December 1827 delegation to Washington, D.C., and signed the Treaty of Washington of 6 May 1828. In December 1838 he was elected chief by the faction of Old Settlers who rejected the Cherokee Nation constitution of 1839. Rogers opposed John Ross's efforts to liquidate the Cherokee Nation West, but Ross succeeded in creating a constitution to unite the Cherokee Nation West and Cherokee Nation East. Rogers, in order to avoid signing the new agreement of union between the two groups, traveled to Mexico City during its signing in 1840. Rogers had operated a salt works near Salina, Oklahoma, since 1830, but in October 1843, all salt works were nationalized in the Cherokee Nation. In 1846, he traveled to Washington, D.C., to advocate for Old Settler rights, where he died on June 12, 1846.