Advisor: Taylor, Alan (NHC Fellow, 1993–94)

By Cave, Karen Carroll (NHC Education Digital Projects Coordinator, 2016–18)

In the first days of the Constitution the United States faced multiple difficulties as it moved to negotiate with the Indian tribes of the Southeast. These independent nations resisted white invasions into their lands, and a patchwork of former treaties and agreements, multiple tribes and leaders, foreign threats on US borders, invading settlers and land speculators, and issues of state sovereignty (especially that of Georgia) rendered the times uncertain. American officials worked to develop policies to establish the federal government as the sole legitimate negotiator with the Tribes in order to construct treaties that would yield mutually acceptable goals.

Subjects

History / Education Studies / American History / Treaties / Indigenous Americans / United States Government / Primary Sources /