Isaac McCoy (1784-1846), American Indian agent and missionary, worked with several tribes in the Midwest, urging them to move to reservations. He advocated a separate state solely for Indians.

Born near Uniontown, Pa., on June 13, 1784, Isaac McCoy moved with his family to Kentucky in 1790. There his father pastored a church, and young McCoy experienced a religious conversion at the age of 17. Two years later he married Christiana Polke, who eventually would bear 13 children.

In 1804 McCoy moved to Indiana, where he settled in Clark County as the minister at Maria Creek Baptist Church. In 1817 he was appointed missionary to the Miami and Kickapoo Indians in the Wabash Valley, and later he served in the same capacity among the Potawatomi and Ottawa Indians in Michigan.

In 1828 McCoy was appointed a member of the Federal commission assigned to move the Ottawa and Miami Indians westward as part of a government policy...