Jean-Baptiste Faribault

Jean-Baptiste Faribault (October 19, 1775 – August 20, 1860) was a trader with various groups of Native Americans and early settler in Minnesota.

In 1809, he settled in the small village of Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, and commenced trading, on his own account, with the Indians of the Winnebago, Fox, and Sioux tribes.

During the War of 1812, Faribault refused to enlist in the British army, and suffered imprisonment and the loss of all his goods in consequence.

In 1819, he removed to Pike Island in the Mississippi River, which his wife received ownership of under an 1820 treaty,[2] and in 1826 to St. Peter (Mendota, Minnesota), opposite the military post of Fort Snelling.

[3] He was much attached to the Roman Catholic faith of his childhood and presented a house for a chapel to Lucien Galtier, the first resident missionary in Minnesota (1840).