Joseph Renville

Joseph Renville (1779–1846) was an interpreter, translator, expedition guide, Canadian officer in the War of 1812, founder of the Columbia Fur Company, and an important figure in dealings between settlers of European ancestry and Dakota (Sioux) Natives in Minnesota. He contributed to the translation of Christian religious texts into the Dakota language. The hymnal Dakota dowanpi kin, was "composed by J. Renville and sons, and the missionaries of the A.B.C.F.M." and was published in Boston in 1842. Its successor, Dakota Odowan, first published with music in 1879, has been reprinted many times and is in use today.

Joseph Renville's father, Joseph Rainville (also known as De Rainville) (1753–1806), was a French Canadian canoeman and fur trader, and his mother, Miniyuhe (Miniyuhewiŋ), was a kinswoman of the Mdewakanton Dakota chief Little Crow family. Renville's bicultural formative years probably included instruction by a Roman Catholic priest in Eastern Canada. His wife, Mary Tokanne (Tokahewiŋ) Renville, also a kinswoman of Big Thunder (Wakiŋyaŋtaŋka) Little Crow II, was an early Christian convert.

The town of Renville, Minnesota, is named in honor of Joseph Renville, as are Renville County, Minnesota and Renville County, North Dakota. A street in Detroit, Michigan is also named after him.