The Cayuga Indians Case
American and British Arbitration
Nielsen Reports 203, 207 (1926)
New York signed treaties with the Cayuga Indians in 1789, 1790, and 1795, ultimately agreeing to pay the "Cayuga Nation" $1,800 per year, and continued paying Cayugas who had relocated to Canada until 1811. When the tribe split during the War of 1812 -- Canadian Cayugas siding with Great Britain, U.S. Cayugas with the United States -- New York began paying only the U.S.-based Cayugas. The postwar Treaty of Ghent restored Indians' prewar rights, and Great Britain invoked that clause to claim the Canadian Cayugas were still entitled to their share of the $1,800 annuity.
Whether principles of equity may be used as a source of international law to resolve a legal anomaly not clearly governed by other sources of law.