The Treaty of Canandaigua (or Konondaigua, as spelled in the treaty itself) also known as the Pickering Treaty and the Calico Treaty, is a treaty signed after the American Revolutionary War between the Grand Council of the Six Nations and President George Washington representing the United States of America. It was signed at Canandaigua, New York on November 11, 1794, by fifty sachems () and war chiefs representing the Grand Council of the Six Nations of the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) Confederacy (including the Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca and Tuscarora tribes), and by Timothy Pickering, official agent of President George Washington. Background of the treaty The Treaty of Canandaigua arose out of a combination of geo-political tensions. In the aftermath of its defeat in the American Revolutionary War, Great Britain was forced to relinquish its land east of the Mississippi River to the United States. However, Great Britain’s original rights to this territory were unclear, causing resentment among the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, to whom the land originally belonged. Moreover, some indigenous peoples on the western frontier of the United States remained loyal to the British after the American Revolutionary War and were hostile towards the United States. The United States faced resentment from the Haudenosaunee Confederacy over their acceptance of land in the Ohio Valley from Great Britain and faced the threat of another war on its western frontier. In order to avoid war, the United States government sought to define a solid boundary on its western frontier. It also recognized that peace with the Haudenosaunee Confederacy was critical at this point in case another war did break out. The United States attempted to make peace with the Haudenosaunee Confederacy with a series of conferences and treaties: the treaties of Fort Stanwix and Fort Harmar. However, both treaties were considered failures by the United States government because they resulted in increased tension with the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. United States Secretary of War Henry Knox began a military operation on the western frontier in September 1790 and appointed Indian commissioner Timothy Pickering to address the Haudenosaunee Confederacy’s grievances with the United States government. Pickering decided to follow a “strategy of conciliation and compromise”, beginning with a conference with the Seneca Nation to offer gifts and peace after the failed treaties of Fort Harmar and Fort Stanwix. A series of conferences followed, in which Pickering opened dialogue between the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and the United States