Indian Agency House

The Agency House is where the US government engaged with Native people, especially regarding past treaties. This is where the Native signers of past treaties such as the 1829 Treaty of Prairie du Chien collected annuity payments for land ceded. Chicago’s first Indian Agent, Charles Jouett, moved his family into the Agency House in 1805. The Jouett family employed a Pottawatomi woman, Nokenoqua, as a housekeeper and held at least one enslaved person in bondage there. Alexander Wolcott was appointed as Indian Agent in 1817. It is believed that Wolcott worked with Antoine Ouilmette to recruit Alexander Robinson to negotiate the three treaties in 1829, 1832, and 1833 that lead to the removal of Anishinaabe and the official founding of Chicago as an American city.

Sources:

Colbee C. Benton, A Visitor to Chicago in Indian Days : “Journal to the ‘Far-off West,’” ed. James R. Getz and Paul M. Angle (Chicago: Caxton Club, 1957).
Juliette M. Kinzie, Wau-Bun, the “Early Day” in the North-West (New York: Derby & Jackson, 1856); Terry Straus, ed., Indians of the Chicago Area (Chicago: NAES College, 1990).