Shaping of America 1783-1815 Primary Sources | U.S. Congress: An Act to Regulate Trade and Intercourse with the Indian Tribes

Excerpt from "An Act to Regulate Trade and Intercourse with the
Indian Tribes"

Passed on July 22, 1790
Published in The Public Statutes at Large of the United States of America,
edited by Richard Peters, 1850

Through the late 1780s, Native American relations west of the Appalachians took different courses in the region north of the Ohio River and the area south ofthe river. By 1786, the states holding claims to the northwestern lands had given up their claims to the central government. These were now public lands under control of the U.S. government. To the south of the Ohio River, it was a different story. The future state of Kentucky remained part of Virginia, Tennessee did not form a territory separate from North Carolina until 1789, and since 1783 Georgia had expansive land claims stretching toward the Mississippi River, including the present-day states of Alabama...