Treaty of New York (1790)
The Treaty of New York was a treaty signed in 1790 between leaders of the Creek people and US Secretary of War Henry Knox, who was in the administration of US President George Washington. A failed 1789 attempt at a treaty between the United States and the Creek Indians at Rock Landing, Georgia, in 1789, was abruptly ended by the Creek leader Alexander McGillivray, who described his grievances in a letter to the US commissioners. Washington sent a special emissary, Colonel Marinus Willett, to McGillvray and persuaded him to come to New York City, which  was the US capital, to conduct a treaty with Washington and Knox directly. In the summer of 1790, twenty-seven Creek leaders, led by McGillivray, traveled to New York and signed a treaty on behalf of the "Upper, Middle, and Lower Creek and Seminole composing the Creek nation of Indians." Informed of European legal customs by his Scottish father, McGillivray provided his formal signature on behalf of the Creek delegation. Creek leaders ceded a significant portion of their hunting grounds, including land stretching to the Oconee River, to the United States and agreed to turn runaway slaves over to federal  authorities, but the Creek leaders averred that convincing the Creek people to honor the new boundary lines or to return black slaves would be difficult at best. The United States granted the Creeks the right to punish non-Indian trespassers in their territory but refused to allow the Creeks to punish non-Indians who committed crimes on Creek lands. The Creeks agreed to turn over to US courts Creeks accused of crimes. In a secret side agreement, McGillivray received a commission as a brigadier in the US Army, with an annual salary of $1,500. The treaty also provided the  tribes with agricultural supplies and tools. McGillivray was granted permission to import goods through the Spanish port of Pensacola without paying American duties. He also received $100,000 in compensation for the seized lands of his father. The Treaty of New York was the first treaty between the United States and Native Americans that was not held in Indian-controlled lands.