Jeffrey Deroine

Jeffrey Deroine ("de-ro-NAY", alt. Dorian, Deroin, Doraway) (May 14, 1806 - 28 March 1859) was an African American diplomat, trader, and linguist who helped the U.S. Government negotiate numerous treaties with American Indian tribes in the Midwest and West.

Deroine, the son of a trader of French and Spanish ancestry and an African American mother, was born in St. Louis as a slave to the French-American fur trader Joseph Robidoux. He was reportedly raised by a man named Francis Deroin, whose relationship to Jeffrey is not clear. Working for Robidoux at his American Fur Company trading posts, Deroin became an experienced trader himself, helped by his ease in learning different American Indian languages. Suffering from Robidoux's physical abuse, Deroine sued for his freedom in St. Louis in 1822, when Deroine was 16 years old, claiming he was being held against his will in regions where slavery was illegal. After a decade of legal proceedings and delays, Deroine lost his case, but his freedom was likely purchased by either the Indian trader Andrew S. Hughes or the Ioway chief Francis White Cloud in 1832.

Deroine, now free, began work for Hughes as a translator at the Ioway Agency, located near Agency, Missouri, in delicate negotiations between the Ioway and Omaha. His reputation for his linguistic skills led to Deroin's employment as translator for the Office of Indian Affairs, although his hiring required the intervention of William Clark because of his status as a former slave. Deroine mostly translated for the Ioway, and was accepted by the Ioway as an ally.

In 1844 he accompanied Francis White Cloud and a group of Ioway on a tour of Europe sponsored by George Catlin (who called him "Doraway") which was widely celebrated at the time.

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