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The General Joseph Montfort Street House was constructed in about 1832, during General Street’s service as Indian Agent at Prairie du Chien. Prior to this time, the Indian Agency had been located on St. Feriole Island (this building is no longer extant). Shortly after its construction, General Street’s two-story, Federal style brick house was the site of Black Hawk’s surrender in August of 1832, ending the sixteen-week Black Hawk War.
Born in Virginia in 1782, General Joseph Montfort Street had studied law, established a weekly newspaper in Kentucky, and held a number of local government positions in Illinois before President Adams appointed him as Indian Agent to the Ho-Chunk (formerly referred to as Winnebago) at Prairie du Chien in 1827. Upon his arrival in Prairie du Chien, Street reportedly lived in two existing residences (including the house of the previous agent, Nicholas Boilvin) before constructing the existing house sometime between 1829 and 1832. The house was conveniently located about three blocks north of Fort Crawford and was reportedly constructed by an unnamed builder from Galena, Illinois. Outside of official Agency business, General Street also used his home as a place of worship, holding Protestant services which were attended by Indian Agency employees and officers from Fort Crawford.
During his term as Indian Agent, General Joseph Street was regarded as exceptionally fair and honest in his relations with the Native Americans, much to the frustration of local traders who had become accustomed to harvesting timber from land belonging to the tribes and using the native population as hunters and trappers with whiskey as payment for their goods and services – all of which greatly benefitted the traders, but brought no benefit to the Native Americans. During his time at Prairie du Chien, Street endeavored to earn the Ho-Chunk people’s respect, going so far as to far as to arrest traders who had illegally harvested timber on their land and forbidding the presence of alcohol at his Indian Agency residence. After Black Hawk and his remaining band sought refuge with the Ho-Chunk following the massacre of hundreds of his fleeing band near the Bad Axe River, Ho-Chunk leaders under Street’s direction brought Black Hawk to him on August 27, 1832. Following his surrender to General Street, Black Hawk was taken to Fort Crawford, then under the command of Colonel Zachary Taylor.
Recognizing the disreputable land treaties that had become commonplace between the United States and Native Americans – including the 1804 treaty that led to the Black Hawk War – General Street wrote to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in 1832 that “the present system of acquiring Indian lands is horrible in its results, revolting to every sense of justice and humanity… And will such a government as ours, aspiring to the highest character among the governments of the world for liberality and justice to all nations, permit such an abominable system of fraud, involving certain ruin to the Indians, to exist under the sanction of their treaties?” As an agent of the United States government, however, Street also played a role in the removal of native peoples from their lands and consistently operated under a misguided plan to “civilize” the tribes. To this end, Street was an early proponent of making native people legal citizens of the United States. General Street’s term as Indian Agent at Prairie du Chien ended in 1834 when he was reassigned to the Indian Agency at Rock Island, Illinois, although reports suggest that his family continued to resides at Prairie du Chien for the next four years. Joseph Montfort Street died in Wapello County, Iowa on May 5, 1840.
At the end of Street’s term as Indian Agent at Prairie du Chien, his house was purchased by the United States government for use by the Indian Agency. The Indian Agency at Prairie du Chien was discontinued in 1839, following which time the house served as a private residence. The building was converted to a duplex in the late 1940s and was used in this capacity through January of 1976 when it was restored to use as a single-family residence. T
National And State Register Of Historic Places Listings
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Black Hawk War overrated say pioneers
Dec 22, 1926
Prairie du Chien press
Black Hawk Tree
The Black Hawk Tree growing in the middle of the street, now East Black Hawk Avenue. There are houses on the left and the road is lined with trees planted in neat rows. There is snow on the ground...
Historic Indian Agency House
Fox River
The Historic Indian Agency House was built by the U.S. government for John Kinzie in 1832. Kinzie was the Indian Agent to the Ho-Chunk Nation (Winnebago), and he and his wife, Juliette Magill Kinzi...
Black Hawk's Surrender
Diorama in the Milwaukee Public Museum depicting Black Hawk's surrender on August 27, 1832 at Fort Crawford in Prairie du Chien.
