Signers

 

​​​David D. Mitchell began working for the American Fur Company in St. Louis around 1830, and became a partner in the reorganized company in 1835. He was sent to Montana in 1832, where he built Fort McKenzie. From 1841 to 1844 and from 1849 to 1853​​ Mitchell was the Superintendent of Indian Affairs in St. Louis.​ A girl named Lucy Delaney was enslaved by Mitchell in 1844; Delaney's mother, Polly Berry (enslaved at times by other treaty signers) sued for their freedom, and years later Lucy Delaney wrote about that struggle in From the Darkness Cometh Light. During the US War with Mexico, Mitchell was​​ a colonel in the Missouri Voluntee​rs. A​​​​​t one point during the War, he flirted w​ith "Senora Tules, the gambling queen of Santa Fe," to borrow money to move his troops to Chihuahua. In​​​​ 1855 he helped organize the Missouri and California Overland Mail and Transportation Company (which he was president of for some time)​, and during the Mormon War of 1858 supplied mules for the army. ​​​​