Dr. John Sibley (English)

ohn Sibley (1757-1837) was a physician from Massachusetts who moved to Natchitoches shortly after France ceded Louisiana to the United States. In 1804 President Thomas Jefferson appointed Dr. Sibley as "occasional" Indian Agent in the border country, on the strength of the latter's quickly-gained knowledge of the Red River valley and its native inhabitants. In 1805 Sibley received a full-time appointment, and a Congressional appropriation of several thousand dollars for trade goods to use in winning the allegiance of the Indian tribes for the U.S. The Spanish considered his tactics a threat to their hegemony. "The revolutionist and lover of change, Doctor Sikbley" had to be stopped, wrote Don Nemecio Salcedo, the commander of the Provincias Internas.

Based on Flores, J&SW, 30-31 and note 42

--Joseph Mussulman