Kellogg—Removal of the Winnebago 
25 
Now the time drew near when the major part of the tribe must 
abandon its ancestral home, and remove all its villages either north 
of the Wisconsin or to the new cession in Iowa. The government 
would not specify which region should be occupied. There was, 
however, rivalry among the government agents on this score. 
Agent Joseph M. Street, at Prairie du Chien, was strongly in 
favor of the Iowa location; he argued that it was merely a mat¬ 
ter of time when the tribe must relinquish all its lands east of the 
Mississippi, and it would be best if it should be removed at 
once to the west bank. On the other hand, Kinzie and Gratiot, 
who best knew the Kock Eiver band, urged a location just north 
of the Wisconsin. Street accused them of doing so in the interest 
of the American Pur Company and from self-interest for their 
sub-agencies. He was, however, intensely jealous of Kinzie, who 
was much more popular than himself both with the whites and the 
Indians. Street was a good man, with humane views, but not well 
adapted to the exigencies of the frontier, and somewhat imprac¬ 
ticable in his plans for civilizing the red men. 
Meanwhile the Fox River and Rock River bands were besieging 
their agents with importunities to be allowed to remain on their 
homelands until fall. If they might plant their accustomed fields 
once more and gather the harvest, then they promised that they 
would take their annuities and remove without making any diffi¬ 
culty. Both Kinzie and Gratiot favored this course, but were un¬ 
able to secure the coveted permission from either the governors of 
Michigan or Illinois or from the commissioner of Indian affairs. 
The white settlers of the Illinois frontier were terrified by the 
recollections of the hostilities of 1832. John Dixon, of Rock River, 
informed the army officers of the frontier posts that he believed 
that the Winnebago were plotting with the Potawatomi for a 
new uprising. Gratiot was hurried to his Sugar River agency 
house; there he met an officer from Fort Winnebago who had been 
sent to test the temper of the tribesmen. The latter were terrified 
by what they thought was a threat of war. They could not be 
dissuaded from the belief that the whites were plotting to make 
war upon them. They admitted to Gratiot that the Potawatomi 
had sent them a message by their trader, Thibault, but insisted 
that it was a peaceful message. Gratiot himself saw the wampum 
and that it was tied with a green ribbon, signifying peace. The 
message was an invitation to hold a great council at Turtle village 
(on the site of Beloit). Here they were to have, wrote Gratiot, 
