James Vann

Who was James Vann?

James Vann was an influential Cherokee leader, one of the triumvirate with Major Ridge and Charles R. Hicks, who led the Upper Towns of East Tennessee and North Georgia. As the son of Wah-Li Vann, a mixed-race Cherokee woman, and a Scots fur trader, he was born into his mother's Wild Potato clan.

Vann was among the younger leaders of the Cherokee who thought its people needed to acculturate to deal with the European Americans and the United States government. He encouraged the Moravians to establish a mission school on Cherokee land, and became a wealthy planter and slaveholder.