Editing Muscogee (section)

===American Revolutionary War===
With the end of the [[French and Indian War]] (also known as the [[Seven Years' War]]) in 1763, France lost its North American empire, and British-American settlers moved inland. Indian discontent led to raids against back-country settlers, and the perception that the royal government favored the Indians and the deerskin trade led many back-country white settlers to join the [[Sons of Liberty]]. Fears of land-hungry settlers and need for European manufactured goods led the Muscogee to side with the British, but like many tribes, they were divided by factionalism, and, in general, avoided sustained fighting, preferring to protect their sovereignty through cautious participation.

During the [[American Revolution]], the Upper Creeks sided with the [[Kingdom of Great Britain|British]], fighting alongside the [[Chickamauga Cherokee|Chickamauga]] (Lower Cherokee) warriors of [[Dragging Canoe]], in the [[Cherokee–American wars]], against white settlers in present-day [[Tennessee]]. This alliance was orchestrated by the [[Coushatta]] chief [[Alexander McGillivray]], son of [[Lachlan McGillivray]], a wealthy Scottish [[Loyalist (American Revolution)|Loyalist]] fur-trader and planter, whose properties were confiscated by Georgia. His ex-partner, [[Scots-Irish American|Scots-Irish]] [[Patriot (American Revolution)|Patriot]] [[George Galphin]], initially persuaded the Lower Creeks to remain neutral, but [[Loyalist (American Revolution)|Loyalist]] Capt. William McIntosh led a group of pro-British [[Hitchiti]], and most of the Lower Creeks nominally allied with Britain after the 1779 [[Capture of Savannah]]. Muscogee warriors fought on behalf of Britain [[Spain in the American Revolution|during the Mobile and Pensacola campaigns of 1780–81]], where Spain re-conquered [[British West Florida]]. Loyalist leader [[Thomas Brown (loyalist)|Thomas Brown]] raised a division of [[King's Rangers]] to contest [[Patriot (American Revolution)|Patriot]] control over the Georgia and Carolina interior and instigated Cherokee raids against the [[North Carolina]] back-country after the [[Battle of King's Mountain]]. He seized [[Augusta, Georgia|Augusta]] in March 1780, with the aid of an Upper Creek war-party, but reinforcements from the Lower Creeks and local white [[Loyalist (American Revolution)|Loyalist]]s never came, and [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] militia led by [[Elijah Clarke]] retook Augusta in 1781.<ref>Edward Cashin ''The King's Ranger: Thomas Brown and the American Revolution on the Southern Frontier'' p. 130</ref> The next year an Upper Creek war-party trying to relieve the British garrison at [[Savannah, Georgia|Savannah]] was routed by [[Continental Army]] troops under Gen. [[Anthony Wayne|'Mad' Anthony Wayne]].

After the war ended in 1783, the Muscogee learned that Britain had ceded their lands to the now independent United States. That year, two Lower Creek chiefs, Hopoithle Miko (Tame King) and Eneah Miko (Fat King), ceded {{convert|800|sqmi|km2|sigfig=2}} of land to the state of Georgia. [[Alexander McGillivray]] led pan-Indian resistance to white encroachment, receiving arms from the [[Spanish Florida|Spanish in Florida]] to fight trespassers. The bilingual and bicultural McGillivray worked to create a sense of Muscogee nationalism and centralize political authority, struggling against village leaders who individually sold land to the United States. He also became a wealthy landowner and merchant, owning as many as sixty black slaves.

In 1784, he negotiated the [[Treaty of Pensacola]] with Spain, recognizing Muscogee control over {{convert|3000000|acre|km2|sigfig=2}} of land claimed by Georgia, and guaranteeing access to the British firm [[Panton, Leslie & Company|Panton, Leslie & Co.]] which controlled the deerskin trade, while making himself an official representative of Spain.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-2313|title=Alexander McGillivray – Encyclopedia of Alabama|access-date=December 22, 2009|archive-date=October 15, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131015211441/http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-2313|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1786, a council in [[Tuckabatchee]] decided to wage war against white settlers on Muscogee lands. War parties attacked settlers along the [[Oconee River]], and Georgia mobilized its militia. McGillivray refused to negotiate with the state that had confiscated his father's plantations, but President [[George Washington]] sent a special emissary, Col. [[Marinus Willet]], who persuaded him to travel to New York City, then the capital of the U.S., and deal directly with the federal government. In the summer of 1790, McGillivray and 29 other Muscogee chiefs signed the [[Treaty of New York (1790)|Treaty of New York]], on behalf of the 'Upper, Middle and Lower Creek and Seminole composing the Creek nation of Indians,' ceding a large portion of their lands to the federal government and promising to return fugitive slaves, in return for federal recognition of Muscogee sovereignty and promises to evict white settlers. McGillivray died in 1793, and with the invention of the [[cotton gin]] white settlers on the Southwestern frontier who hoped to become cotton planters clamored for Indian lands. In 1795, [[Elijah Clarke]] and several hundred followers defied the Treaty of New York and established the short-lived [[Trans-Oconee Republic]].