Isaac McCoy

Isaac McCoy
1831 painting of McCoy
Born(1784-06-13)June 13, 1784
DiedJune 21, 1846(1846-06-21) (aged 62)
Occupation(s)Baptist minister and missionary to tribes
Years active1808 (1808)-1846 (1846)

Isaac McCoy (June 13, 1784 – June 21, 1846) was an American pioneer and Baptist missionary among the Native Americans in what became the states of Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, and Kansas.

He was an advocate of saving the dwindling tribes from decades of ongoing American abuse, by leading their charitable removal from the eastern United States into their own homesteading. He serially established successful tribal missions at the remote western American frontiers, hundreds of miles beyond any white settlements, repeatedly relocating westward due to encroachment and exploitation. He wrote books and made many trips to Washington, D.C. to solicit funds, create programs, and propose a permanent sovereign tribal colony within Indian Territory, which instead became the states of Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. He pioneered the areas that became Grand Rapids, Michigan and Kansas City, Missouri.