Encountering a Native People

Prior to 1733, the Creek people occupied a significant portion of what would eventually become Georgia. However, they were pressured to give up more and more of their land as settlers expanded west.

Creek Indians established relationships with English settlers long before the arrival of General James Oglethorpe and the founding of the Georgia colony in 1733.

The two groups had been trading in skins and enslaved people since the first colonists arrived in the Carolinas fifty years earlier.

According to Georgia’s charter, the state boundaries stretched north along the Savannah River, south to the Altamaha River, and west to the Pacific Ocean. After the charter was issued, more than 100 settlers under the leadership of James Oglethorpe set sail for the new colony.

Tomochichi (1644 - 1739) was mico, or chief, of the Yamacraw people who inhabited the coastal region around what is now Savannah, Georgia, in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. In 1733, Tomochichi allowed James Oglethorpe to establish his royal colony on Yamacraw Bluff in hopes that they would become close trading partners and allies.

Oglethorpe and Tomochichi eventually became so close that they traveled to England together to meet with representatives of the British government. Tomochichi died in 1739 and was given full military honors at his funeral, with James Oglethorpe serving as a pall bearer.

In 1734, the South Carolina Assembly wrote to the king of England about the new colony of Georgia and native groups in the surrounding area.

The Assembly expressed particular concern that Creek, Cherokee, and French forces from the region near Georgia might unify against British colonies in the Carolinas.

The Assembly further worried that if the Creeks turned against the British in favor of a French alliance, they could pass along strategic knowledge about English settlements.

Elaborating on the situation, the Assembly conveyed some reassurance in their positive relationship with the Lower Creeks and their faith in James Oglethorpe as a leader.

One purpose of the Georgia colony was to act as a barrier or buffer between the British colony of Carolina and the Spanish colony of La Florida.

When Oglethorpe received word that the Spanish were trying to undermine his relationship with the Lower Creeks, he sought a formal agreement to prevent hostilities. In August of 1739, the Treaty of Coweta was signed. It clearly outlined which land was available for British colonists to settle and which land belonged to the Lower Creeks.

The English settled North America's Atlantic coast in three main areas: the upper New England, the Middle Atlantic, and the Southern. These colonial regions were largely prevented from expanding west due to the natural barrier of the Appalachian Mountain range.

The earliest settlements were established in the first decades of the 1600s in Jamestown, Virginia, then later in Plymouth, New England. The first Georgia settlement was established more than a century later.

When the United States Constitution was ratified in 1788, there were only 10 counties in Georgia. Eight were originally created as parishes under colonial rule. Franklin and Washington counties were later created from land ceded by the Creeks and Cherokees.

Today, there are no federally recognized Native American tribes in Georgia. However, some residing tribes are recognized by the state, such as the Lower Muskogee Creeks, headquartered at Tama Tribal Town in Whigham.

In 1790, Alexander McGillivray represented the Creek people during negotiations with the newly established United States government.

In the resulting Treaty of New York, Secretary of War Henry Knox and the Creek people pledged peace and lasting friendship while hammering out specific understandings going forward.

Both sides of the treaty agreed on the jurisdiction of laws for Creeks and Seminoles as well as land boundaries and terms for prisoner exchanges.