Dear Adrian & all, It wasn't just to go through the Cherokee Nation. The main territory that all settlers moving westward from the Carolinas and Georgia, was through the Creek Indian Nation, which covered a much larger area. These passports were issued by the Governor's office of Georgia, for those citizens passing through Georgia and going westward to Mississippi through the Creek Indian Nation. Most of the territory of what is now Alabama and Mississippi (except the "panhandle" areas of both states) was part of Georgia. Georgia sold this western territory to the federal government in 1802. Robert Earl