In December 1835, a small faction of Cherokee led by Major Ridge, John Ridge, Elias Boudinot, and others, acting on their own and without the consent of Principal Chief John Ross, signed the Treaty of New Echota, setting the conditions for the removal of the Cherokee to Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma. Ross, backed by the majority of Cherokees, considered the treaty fraudulent and protested it vigorously, but their voices went unheard. In May 1838, 7,000 federal troops and state militia under Major General Winfield Scott began forcibly rounding up Cherokee from their homes in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee and marching them to one of three main emigrating depots before their journey west on what is now known as the Trail of Tears. At Fort Cass, the largest of these depots, the majority of Cherokees were forced to wait for months in internment camps spread across the depot's 12 x 4-mile area before departing west.