Philander Prescott

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Philander Prescott, about 1860Philander Prescott was born September 17, 1801 in Phelpstown, New York. In 1820 he arrived at Camp New Hope (Fort Snelling) in Minnesota. He married the daughter of a Dakota chief in 1823. Prescott and his wife, Mary, and their children lived among the Dakota for more than 40 years. He was engaged in the fur trade with the American and Columbia fur trading companies and was associated with Lawrence Taliaferro's Eatonville agricultural colony for the Indians. He was an interpreter during the Traverse des Sioux treaty negotiations in 1851.

Prescott talked about treaty funds being misused in a report made to the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1856:

"Estimates and requisitions have annually been made from the Sioux agency office for all the funds due the Sioux by treaty stipulations.
 
To the honor of the president and congress these funds to the full extent have been annually appropriated. And when it was represented a few years ago that an earlier payment of the annuities would be desirable these appropriations have been since made one year in advance. Have the officers under the president applied these funds, so appropriated in the manner stipulated by the treaties? I can distinctly say no!
 
The treaties say these funds shall be annually expended, whereas large amounts have been kept back and are now in arrear and that after repeated applications to have them expended. These arrears are not mere petty sums, surpluses or remnants of funds remaining unexpended but large amounts thousands and tens of thousands-and in some cases the whole fund appropriated for a special purpose.'"
 
On the morning of August 18, 1862, Dakota friends warned Prescott to stay out of sight in his house. His family stayed there, but Prescott chose to flee to Fort Ridgely. Dakota soldiers killed him and took Mary, his wife, and their children captive. Mary and her daughter Julia escaped captivity during the Battle of Wood Lake and went to Fort Ridgely.
 
Theme: 
Shared History
Topics: 
Fur Trade
Inter-cultural Relationships
Bibliography: 

Philander Prescott: An Inventory of His Reminiscences and Related Papers at the Minnesota Historical Society.

Resources for Further Research: 

Websites

Prescott Area Chamber of Commerce

Primary

Philander Prescott: An Inventory of His Reminiscences and Related Papers at the Minnesota Historical Society.

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