Nesouaquoit's reputation came not from his courage in war, his diplomacy, or his skill in hunting, but from his violent hatred of alcohol and tobacco. Colonel McKenney described him as the only Indian of whom it can be said-he never tasted a drop of spirituous liquor or smoked a pipe!"

Nesouaquoit had seen what the whiskey peddlers had done to not only Sauk and Fox but other nations on the frontier, and was determined they would not destroy his people. He would beat in the head of the barrels, pour the stupifying traders' whiskey or high wines on the ground, then, using the barrel staves, would drive the peddlers from his villages.

[...]

In 1815, a treaty was entered into by the government and the Sauk and Fox, in which an annual annuity was to be paid to Chemakasee [Nesouaquoit's father] and his people.

They proved to be the most patient Indians in history. One, two, three years passed and no money or trade goods came from Washington. Chemakasee grew older and his son Nesouaquoit took his place as chief. Finally, twenty years passed and Nesouaquoit told his warriors and subchiefs that he had decided to go to Washington to see the Great Father and collect their annuity.

In St.Louis General Clark agreed he had a just complaint, but informed him that there were no government funds available to send him on that long trip.
Nesouaquoit then visited a French moneylender in St.Louis who agreed to finance the round trip with "three boxes and a half of silver"-equivalent to about $3,500. But before the money would be turned over them, the Fox had to gather enough pelts to put up as collateral.

All that winter Nesouaquoit's hunters filled their lodges with skins. In the spring with Clark's approval the loan was completed, and Nesouaquoit received his box of silver, and the moneylenders his furs.

The Fox chief presented his petition to the President and the secretary of war the following year "in a firm and decided manner. The authorities recognised his claim and he was assured that the provision of the treaty... should be scrupulously fulfilled, and respected in future."

Nesouaquoit's warriors could have saved their furs and the St.Louis moneylender his boxes of silver, for nothing was ever done. Year after year the Sauk and Fox chiefs pleaded with Washington but as one chief angrily told Clark it was clear that the Great Father had two sets of ears, one for the whites and the other for the Indians.