Prentice G. "Spike" Downes (1909–1959) was an American school teacher and author, who travelled by canoe to explore the Great Barren Lands and learn the ways of the Cree and Dene people.
Downes' journals record a disappearing people, and a landscape unknown to all but the Canadian natives at that time.
His daughter Annie Downes Catterson said of him that he traveled a great distance "in order to learn the things of long ago."
When Downes was not traveling, he lived and taught in Concord, Massachusetts On his trips, he kept detailed journals in which he recorded not only daily events, but also the stories and traditions of the Cree and Dene people.
Based on this trip, Downes wrote the classic canoe adventure book, Sleeping Island.