Street, Joseph Montfort 1780-1840
Indian Agent
b. Virginia, 1780
d. Agency City, Iowa, May, 1840
Joseph Montfort Street was an Indian agent. He moved to Frankfort, Kentucky around 1805. He briefly published the "Western World."
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In 1812, he became one of the first settlers in Shawneetown, Illinois. In 1827, he was appointed agent for the Winnebago Indians, headquartered at Prairie du Chien. Street held the position until 1836, despite friction with American Fur Company agents, the civil government and the military.
During the Black Hawk uprising of 1832, Street managed to keep the Winnebago and Menominee under control. When Black Hawk was captured in 1832, the aged Sauk chief was delivered to Street in Prairie du Chien. In 1836, Street moved to Rock Island, Illinois, to establish a Sauk and Fox agency. After the removal of Black Hawk and most of the Sauk and Fox Indians to Iowa in 1839, Street followed them to Agency City on the Des Moines River in Wappello County, Iowa Territory.
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B. E. Mahan, Old Fort Crawford . . . (Iowa City, 1926); P. L. Scanlan, Prairie du Chien ([Menasha, Wis.] 1937); Colls. State Hist. Soc. Wis., 11 (1888); WPA field notes.