HENRY H. SIBLEY:

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The collection provides extensive information on the administration of the American Fur Company and the general status and conduct of trade; on individual traders and Dakota bands in the Minnesota area; on prices for furs, trade goods, and supplies; on the company's system of agreements and credits for traders and Indians; on missionaries, explorers, and others who visited pre-territorial Minnesota; on Sibley's long-standing rivalry with Henry M. Rice; on the gradual decline of the fur trade and its replacement by general merchandising; and on all of the treaties concluded in the Minnesota area with the Dakota, Ojibwe, and Winnebago Indians during 1834-1851.

There are accounts and correspondence from Sibley's position as co-sutler at Fort Snelling (1836-1839) and from his various investments in lumbering, river transportation, railroads, and land. Beginning in 1848, there is substantial information on Minnesota politics, particularly Sibley's service as territorial delegate in Congress (1848-1853), the development of roads and mail service and other issues important to the territory, and the split in the Democratic party between the Sibley and Rice factions. There is considerable data on the 1862 U.S.-Dakota War, on the 1863 punitive expedition led by Sibley, and on his subsequent service with several Indian affairs commissions and boards.

Also present are the records of a St. Paul grasshopper relief committee, which Sibley chaired (1874); documentation of his involvement in various other civic affairs; an unfinished autobiography; two Dakota lexicons; and a small non-microfilmed addition (Manuscript Material) that consists of photocopied letters, agreements, and miscellaneous papers.

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These documents are organized into the following sections:

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Microfilm M164 described in: Jane Specter Davis, Guide to a Microfilm Edition of The Henry Hastings Sibley Papers (St. Paul, 1968). A copy of this guide is available in the repository (filed as M164) and in pdf format.

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Access Restrictions:

Microfilmed originals (18 boxes, including 112 volumes) are closed to general use.

Access to and use of reserve materials requires the curator's permission.

Use Restrictions:

Quotation or publication beyond the fair use provisions of the copyright law from items that appear on Microfilm M164, Reels 17 and 32, and that were loaned by the Burton Historical Collection or the Sibley House Association of the Minnesota Daughters of the American Revolution requires written permission. Consult the reference staff for more information.

Microfilm Production:

M164: St. Paul, Minn. : Minnesota Historical Society, 1966-1968. 32 reels; 35 mm.

M164-A: St. Paul, Minn. : Minnesota Historical Society, 1988. 2 reels; 16 mm.

Microfilm available for sale or interlibrary loan from the Minnesota Historical Society.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Henry H. Sibley Papers. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Accession Information:

Accession numbers: 1727; 1745; 2280; 2498; 2626; 2713; 3015; 3668; 3671; 3722; 3889; 4249; 6557; 6770; 6880; 6931; 7673; 7679; 7758; 8678; 9858; 10,636; 10,773; 10,882; 12,302; 12,417; 12,599; 13,744; 13,963; 14,095; 14,133; 14,331; 14,332; 15,824; 16,307; 16,439; 16,456; 16,978

Processing Information:

Processed by: Deborah M. Kahn, December 1987; David B. Peterson, May 1990, September 1991, July 2004; Christopher G. Welter, June 2010; additions by David B. Peterson, May and July 2015

Catalog ID number: 990017336780104294

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Henry H. Sibley's personal papers (mainly 1834-1874) consist of correspondence and miscellaneous papers, a series of volumes (account books, letter books, and scrapbooks), and supplemental material that document his life as a fur trader, territorial delegate to Congress, first Minnesota state governor, and general in the United States Army. The papers are a rich source of information on the fur trade of the Upper Mississippi Valley and Dakota and Ojibwe Indian affairs, the U.S.-Dakota War (1862), and politics, economic development, and settlement in Minnesota (1849 to 1860).

Microfilm M164 is also described in Jane Spector Davis's published guide. The guide provides biographical data on Sibley, information on the Society's acquisition of the papers, a description of the collection, a selected bibliography of manuscript and published sources on Sibley, and selected lists of authors and subjects.

Correspondence and Miscellaneous Papers

Volumes

Supplemental Material

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The research note cards reproduced on this microfilm enhance access to the microfilm edition (M164) of the Henry Hastings Sibley Papers by providing more detailed information on individual manuscript items, authors, and subjects than could be included in the published guide to the microfilm edition. However, because the cards are selective rather than all-inclusive, it is possible that some items, persons, and subjects are represented in the papers even though they are not referred to on the cards.

The cards are divided into three series: 1) chronology cards; 2) author cards; 3) subject cards. All of the author and subject cards and some of the chronology cards were created in the 1960s during the production of the microfilm edition; some of the chronology cards were made under the auspices of the Society at some earlier time.

The chronology cards abstract the contents of selected manuscript items and/or identify the dates on which significant events occurred. They are filed in a single chronological sequence by month, day, and year. In general, cards referring to undated items are filed before those with dates, and cards with partial dates appear before those that are fully dated. Each card usually includes the date and author of the item referred to and an abstract of its contents or the date and a description of the event. Sometimes the number of pages and the place at which a letter was written also are present.

Author cards identify an item or selected items written by a particular individual. Subject cards identify an item or items pertaining to a person or topic. The author and subject cards are arranged in two separate alphabetical sequences by name and by subject. Multiple cards for the same person or subject are in chronological order. In general, each card includes information on the author(s), date(s), and contents of the item(s) to which it refers. A card may contain biographical and/or historical information on an author or a subject.

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Letters, agreements, and miscellaneous papers related to Henry Hastings Sibley, nearly all of which are photocopies. The original documents (with the exception of the Young papers) have been interfiled by date with the main body of Sibley papers (Closed Originals). These photocopies are supplementary material to Microfilm M164.

There are also two indexes for authors in the Sibley correspondence files: (1) alphabetical; (2) chronological.

These materials include letters from Joseph Cretin concerning the establishment of Roman Catholic schools for Winnebago and Dakota mixed-bloods. There are also transcripts made by Rhoda Gilman (formerly of the Minnesota Historical Society) of extracts of letters from Sibley to his wife during the time of the U.S.-Dakota War (1862) as he headed a military expedition to the Minnesota River Valley to suppress the Dakota. The original letters were apparently destroyed by unknown persons some years ago. Transcripts made by Gilman from a diary chronicle a military expedition (the Sibley Expedition) in pursuit of the Dakota into Dakota Territory during summer 1863. The diary itself was filmed as volume 104 during the microfilming project.

There are agreements (1829, 1830) making Sibley a clerk and storekeeper for the American Fur Company. Letters from Sibley to Joseph W. Furber (Cottage Grove, Minnesota) detail the establishment of a post office at that place (1849), Sibley’s efforts to have Furber appointed marshal of Minnesota Territory (1851), and national and territorial politics.

An Indian Affairs file includes letters (1852) from Presbyterian missionary Stephen R. Riggs concerning pending ratification of the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux and Riggs’s publication of a Dakota-language dictionary and grammar. In a letter (1853) to Senator William K. Sebastian, an Arkansas democrat, Sibley defends himself against charges that he and Alexander Ramsey had defrauded the Dakota Indians. A letter from President Millard Fillmore (1852) requests information about the scalping of missionary Elijah Perry. A letter from fur trader and territorial legislator Norman W. Kittson (1852) talks about the fur trade and Indian affairs, including Indian attacks at Pembina. An 1851 letter from Sibley’s brother Fred (Frederick Baker) Sibley describes in some detail problems stirred up among the Indians by one Sweetzer [fur trader Madison Sweetser?] in connection with the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux.

Letters to Sibley from Alexander Ramsey discuss Minnesota territorial politics and intrigue, Ramsey’s political enemies and their accusations against him, territorial politicians and judges, and Indian affairs and the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux. Two letters from explorer Henry Rowe Schoolcraft (1852, 1853) discuss Indian burial mounds in Minnesota and an article to be prepared by Sibley about buffalo hunting. There are letters of introduction (1902, 1908) for Mrs. E. A. Young (a daughter of Henry Sibley) and for Elbert A. Young, Jr.

Miscellaneous items include a speech in Sibley’s hand concerning an “apportionment bill”; a letter (1852) from publisher Charles Scribner regarding an article entitled “Sarah Sibley”; a letter from Isaac Ingalls Stevens (1853), director of an expedition to locate a northern route for construction of a railroad line to the West Coast; and an 1853 letter (evidently written to Sibley) from Frances Lee, commandant at Fort Snelling, discussing personal matters, Sibley and Ramsey’s political problems, and other subjects.

Location

Reserve 103

Correspondence:

Henry R. Schoolcraft to Henry Sibley, January 25, 1853. ALS.

Restricted.

Concerning Seth Eastman's sketches of buffalo hunting on the plains intended for Schoolcraft's 4th volume on Indian tribes of the United States.

Digital version

Rix Robinson to Henry Sibley, August 22, 1835. ALS.

Restricted.

Describes activities in the fur trade and gives news of other traders (George and Talbot Dousman, Ramsay Crooks, John C. Halsey, Edward Biddle and Hercules Dousman).

Digital version

S.A. Douglas to H. H. Sibley, August 15, 1857. ALS.

Restricted.

Letter written at Saint Paul and addressed to Sibley as chair of the Democratic Meeting and to M.E. Ames, J.B. Brisbin, Chas. E. Flandrau, and W.W. Kingsbury, members of the Committee of Arrangements, respectfully declining their invitation to speak at a public dinner during his visit to the city.

Digital version

H.H. Sibley, Brigadier General Commanding, to Lieutenant Colonel W.L. Duff, Assistant Inspector General, July 3, 1864. ALS.

Restricted.

File includes a typed transcript.

Describes matters connected with the Indian War on the frontiers of Minnesota, Iowa, and the Territory of Dakota.

Digital version

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Access restricted. By 1968, the bulk of the Henry H. Sibley Papers had been microfilmed as M164. These originals are closed to general use.

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This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:

African Americans -- Minnesota.

Business enterprises -- Minnesota.

Dakota Indians -- Treaties.

Dakota Indians -- Government relations.

Dakota Indians -- Missions.

Dakota Indians -- Social life and customs.

Dakota Indians -- Wars, 1862-1865.

Dakota language.

Elections -- Minnesota.

Explorers -- Mississippi River Valley.

French-Canadians -- Mississippi River Valley.

Frontier and pioneer life -- Minnesota.

Fur trade -- Mississippi River Valley.

Indian scouts -- Minnesota.

Indians of North America -- Treaties.

Justices of the peace.

Land speculation -- Minnesota.

Lumber trade -- Minnesota.

Military exchanges -- Minnesota -- Fort Snelling.

Missionaries -- Minnesota.

Ojibwa Indians.

Postal service -- United States.

Prisons -- Minnesota.

Public lands -- Minnesota.

Railroads -- Minnesota.

Religion.

Roads -- Minnesota.

Seneca language.

Sibley Expedition, 1863.

Winnebago Indians.

Persons:

Borup, Charles W. W. (Charles William Wulff), 1806-1859, author.

Brown, Joseph Renshaw, 1805-1870, author.

Crooks, Ramsay, 1787-1859, author.

Donnelly, Ignatius, 1831-1901, author.

Dousman, Hercules L. (Hercules Louis), 1800-1868, author.

Eastman, Seth, 1808-1875, author.

Faribault, Alexander, 1806-1882, author.

Forbes, William Henry, 1815-1875, author.

Frazer, Joseph Jack, 1806-1869.

Furber, Joseph Warren, 1814-1884.

Kittson, Norman W. (Norman Wolfred), 1814-1888, author.

LaFramboise, Joseph, 1804?-1857, author.

LaFramboise, Joseph, 1832-1910, author.

Little Crow, d. 1863.

McLeod, Martin, 1813-1860, author.

Miller, Stephen, 1816-1881, author.

Nicollet, J. N. (Joseph Nicolas), 1786-1843, author.

Pond, Gideon H. (Gideon Hollister), 1810-1878, author.

Ramsey, Alexander, 1815-1903, author.

Renville, Joseph, 1779-1846, author.

Rice, Henry M. (Henry Mower), 1816-1894, author.

Riggs, Stephen Return, 1812-1883, author.

Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe, 1793-1864, author.

Sherman, William T. (William Tecumseh), 1820-1891, author.

Sibley, Frederick B., 1824?-1918, author.

Sibley, Sarah Jane, 1823-1869.

Sibley family.

Steele, Franklin, 1813-1880, author.

Taliaferro, Lawrence, 1794-1871, author.

Whipple, Henry Benjamin, 1822-1901, author.

Organizations:

American Fur Company.

Democratic Party (Minn.)

Democratic Party (U.S.)

Henry F. McCloskey and Co., author.

Minnesota. Governor (1864-1866 : Miller), author.

Minnesota Historical Society.

Pierre Chouteau Jr. & Company.

Saint Paul Chamber of Commerce (1867-1904)

Sibley House Association.

United States. Army. Department of the Northwest.

University of Minnesota.

Meetings:

Stillwater Convention (1848).

Places:

Cottage Grove (Minn.)

Dakota Territory.

Fort Ridgely (Minn.)

Fort Snelling (Minn.)

Hastings (Minn.)

Mackinac Island (Mich.)

Mendota (Minn.)

Minnesota -- Description and travel.

Minnesota -- Discovery and exploration.

Minnesota -- Politics and government -- 1849-1858.

Pembina (N.D.)

Pike Island (Minn.)

Traverse (Minn.)

United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865.

United States -- Politics and government -- 19th century.

Document Types:

Diaries.

Microforms.

Occupations:

Fur traders -- Minnesota.

Legislators -- United States.

Sutlers -- Minnesota.

Titles:

St. Paul Pioneer.

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