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MINOR SAC AND FOX CHIEFS AND BRAVES.
descriptive of the person, for he was not deficient in that respect. He was one of the delegation that visited Washington with General Street in 1837. Before attaining to the rank of a village chief, he had achieved honors as a brave. Once, in a skirmish with the Sioux, Kishkekosh, with a single companion, charged suddenly into their ranks, killed several of their warriors, and retreated in safety, carrying away as a trophy a buffalo's head, which he tore from the person of one of the slain Sioux warriors. This was considered an act of desperate valor, and ever after gave him great prominence as a brave among the Sacs and Foxes. In the council at Washington, in 1837, in the presence of a delegation of Sioux chiefs, he attracted attention by appearing with this war trophy as his head-dress. The hideous display of horns and skull, as Kishkekosh stood up on a bench, showing his full stature, attracted all eyes in the council-chamber, nor was the exhibition lost upon the Sioux who whispered to each other and exchanged glances. They understood its meaning, though many whites present at the time did not.
Up to the time of the removal of the Fox tribe from Iowa River, Kishkekosh was probably not recognized as a chief, but was a strong and influential leader of a portion of the tribe. He was a fine natural orator among his people, but did not command fully the respect of the traders and settlers. They charged that he was faithless and dishonest. Unlike most of his cotemporaries, however, he was a man of temperate habits.
In person Kishkekosh was tall, straight, swift of foot, and of great muscular power. He was master in every athletic test in his tribe, and possessed a most perfect figure
