George C. Sibley

George Champlin Sibley
Painting of George Sibley by Chester Harding c1830s
Personal details
Born	(1782-04-01)April 1, 1782 Great Barrington, Massachusetts
Died	January 31, 1863(1863-01-31) (aged 80) St. Charles, Missouri
Spouse(s)	Mary Easton Sibley
Parents	John and Elizabeth Sibley
Occupation	explorer, soldier, indian agent, politician, and educator

George Champlin Sibley (April 1, 1782 – January 31, 1863) was an American explorer, soldier, Indian agent, politician, and educator.

Sibley was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, on April 1, 1782, the son of Dr. John and Elizabeth Sibley. Due to his father's frequent travelling, early childhood for Sibley was spent living with his Puritan grandfather, Samuel Hopkins, in Rhode Island. Later on, Sibley moved with his mother to Fayetteville, North Carolina, where he received his education and apprenticed as a bookkeeper in the counting house of John Winslow.

In 1805, through his correspondence with President Thomas Jefferson, Sibley's father was appointed as an Indian agent for the U.S. government in . George Sibley used his father's acquaintance with President Jefferson to get a position as assistant factor at Fort Bellefontaine at the mouth of the Missouri River near St. Louis, Missouri.

Problems arose in 1807 between Sibley and the factor of Fort Bellefontaine, Rudolph Tillier, when Sibley questioned Tillier's bookkeeping methods. Disagreements grew between the two, to the point that Tillier fired Sibley. To defend himself, Sibley immediately undertook a trip to Washington, DC to give his side of the story.

Sibley was cleared of wrongdoing because of his good reputation among friends William Clark and Acting Governor Frederick Bates. Consequently, Sibley was then given the position of factor at Fort Osage in western Missouri, near present-day Kansas City, Missouri, in 1808.

While at Fort Osage, Sibley quickly engaged in creating relationships with the neighboring Osage tribes. In 1811, he led an expedition, known as the George C. Sibley Expedition, to improve relations with the Pawnee and Kansa tribes, and also to locate the rumored Jefferson's salt mountain. Instead, he found it in the Salt Plains in northwest Oklahoma. He kept several journals of his travels, but never published them.