A Dakota Trading Kinship Group

Dousman and the Campbells

The Campbell siblings were children of a British fur trader and a Dakota woman. Some sources say that their grandmother was a sister of Little Crow, but which Little Crow is unclear. (The name was carried by generations of men.) Antoine Campbell signed the Dakota treaties of 1858). Scott Campbell was a long-time interpreter for Indian agent Lawrence Taliaferro, and signed the multinational treaties at Prairie du Chien in 1825 and 1830, treaties with the Dakota in 1836 and 1837, and the Ojibwe land cession treaty of 1837.

Their sister Margaret had a long relationship with Hercules Dousman, who began working for the American Fur Company in 1826. By 1834, when Astor sold the company, Dousman was in a position to become a major stockholder in the fur trade, in partnership with the Chouteau family of St. Louis and Henry Sibley. Often working in tandem with Sibley, Dousman diversified his business interests as the fur trade declined, amassing a fortune through steamboats, land speculation, timber, and railroads. All of these businesses required obtaining the assets of American Indian people, and Dousman pursued his interests by signing treaties with the Ojibwe in 1837, with the Ho-Chunk in 1846, and with the Dakota in 1836 and 1851. In this last treaty, traders such as Dousman asserted their own interests so aggressively that he later said, “The Sioux treaty will hang like a curse over our heads for the rest of our lives.”

Two of Scott Campbell’s sons were hung for their involvement in the Dakota War of 1862: Baptiste, by the US military in Mankato; and John, by a lynch mob. Their fate stands in stark contrast to the financial benefits gained from US-Indian relations by their uncle Hercules.

Alexander Faribault and George Faribault

Alexander Faribault was the son of a mixed-blood Dakota and French woman and a prominent French fur trader. His father survived regime changes in the fur trade, working for the British Northwest Fur Company and later the American Fur Company, with whom Alexander became a clerk at the age of 12. Before he turned 20, he was a licensed fur trader and his marriage to Mary Graham, member of another prominent French-Dakota family, contributed to his very successful business enterprises.

Faribault eventually diversified his business interests to include banking (in partnerships that included Henry Sibley, Charles Oakes and Charles Borup); milling; and land speculation, founding the town of Faribault and one of the original partners in the establishment of Hastings. He accompanied the Dakota delegation to Washington for a treaty in 1837, but did not sign the treaty. In 1851, while a member of the Minnesota Legislature, he was one of a group of traders who helped engineer both Dakota land cession treaties and in that process received $13,000, roughly equivalent to $300,00 today.

George Faribault, the son of Alexander and Mary, also signed one of the 1851 Dakota treaties. He became Chief of Indian Police at the Standing Rock Reservation in North and South Dakota.

Joseph, Nathaniel and A.M.A. Brown

Joseph Renshaw Brown came to Minnesota at age 14 as a drummer boy at Fort Snelling. He left the army at about age 20 and entered the fur trade. Marriages into two prominent Dakota/French/US families helped ensure his financial success, and he diversified his business interests into transportation and land speculation. He founded the Minnesota towns of Stillwater and Henderson, and co-owned the Dakota Land Company which founded Sioux Falls and other South Dakota towns. Brown County is named after Joseph Renshaw Brown.

His brother Nathaniel also engaged in Minnesota politics as well as in railroads and land speculation.

Joseph Brown led a delegation to Washington for the 1858 land cession treaties, signed a treaty with the Ho-Chunk in 1859, and signed the 1867 Sisseton Wahpeton treaty that established a Dakota reservation in South Dakota. Nathaniel accompanied Joseph to Washington for the 1858 Dakota treaty, and Joseph's son A.M.A. Brown signed the 1867 treaty.