On this day in Alabama history: Creek Nation representatives arrived in New York
A plan of part of the rivers Tombecbe, Alabama, Tensa, Perdido, & Scambia in the province of West Florida; with a sketch of the boundary between the nation of upper Creek Indians and that part of the province which is contiguous thereto, as settled at the congresses at Pensacola in the years 1765 & 1771. (Map by David Taitt and John Stuart, Library of Congress Geography and Map Division)
July 21, 1790
Col. Alexander McGillivray and 30 representatives of the Creek Nation arrived in New York to negotiate the Treaty of New York with the United States. Dressed in traditional Creek clothing, the representatives met members of the Tammany Society, wearing Indian look-alike costumes, at the dock before meeting with President George Washington. In the treaty, signed on Aug. 7, 1790, the Creeks ceded a tract of contentious land in return for a solemn guarantee to all of their remaining land in the country. Most importantly, the treaty was the first between Native Americans and the new country and asserted federal authority for treaties with Indian nations over state authority.
Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.
Portrait of Henry Knox. The Treaty of New York was signed in 1790 between leaders of the Creek people and Henry Knox, Secretary of War. (Original painting by Constantino Brumidi, Photograph by Lycurgus Glover, Detroit Publishing Co., Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division)
For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.
