Creek Delegation in Fredericksburg

J-102

In July 1790 a delegation of Creek Indians from Georgia, headed by Muskogee leader Alexander McGillivray, made their temporary headquarters nearby on their way to New York City. President George Washington invited them to treaty negotiations to resolve territorial disputes and develop further formal relations. While in Fredericksburg, the delegation visited with Washington's family at Kenmore and viewed Ferry Farm, his boyhood home. The group continued north to discuss and sign the 1790 Treaty of New York, the first treaty with a sovereign Indian nation negotiated by the new federal government under the Constitution. The treaty established boundaries and also contained secret articles for promoting trade.

Department of Historic Resources, 2005

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

Kathryn E. Holland Braund, Deerskins and Duffels: The Creek Indian Trade with Anglo-America, 1685-1815 (Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1993), 175-176; John Walton Caughey, McGillivray of the Creeks (Norman, Ok.: University of Oklahoma Press, 1938), 40-53, 256-295; John A. Garraty and Mark Carnes, eds., American National Biography, 23 vols. (New York and Oxford: Oxford University, 1999), 15:53-54; Michael D. Green, The Creeks: A Critical Bibliography (Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press, 1979), 29-33; Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig, eds., The Diaries of George Washington (Charlottesville, Va.: University Press of Virginia, 1976-1979), 6:80-83; Charles J. Kappler, ed., Indian Affairs Laws and Treaties, 6 vols. (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904), 2: 3-29; Charles J. Kappler, ed., Indian Treaties, 1778-1883 (New York, Interland Publishers, 1972); Francis Paul Prucha, American Indian Treaties: The History of a Political Anomaly (Berkley and Los Angles: University of California Press, 1994), 70-84; George H. Schneider, "The Creek Visit to Kenmore and Ferry Farm in 1790." Unpublished paper for George Washington’s Fredericksburg Foundation (2003); Dorothy Twohig, ed., The Papers of George Washington: Presidential Series (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1987-), 5:207-208, 6:189-197, 6:248-254; Virginia Herald, 15 July 1790; William M. Willet, ed., A Narrative of the Military Actions of Colonel Marinus Willett…(New York: G. & C. & H. Carvill, 1831), 94, 111-112.