A Brief History of South Dakota/Chapter 17

by Doane Robinson

CHAPTER XVII

THE SPIRIT LAKE MASSACRE

About 1825 the Wakpekuta band of Santee Sioux, living about the oxbow of the Minnesota River (in the vicinity of Mankato), was ruled by two brothers, Tasagi and Wamdesapa, meaning "the black eagle." Wamdesapa was a vicious man with an uncontrollable temper, and in a burst of passion he killed his brother, who was much beloved by his people. So outraged were the Wakpekutas at this murder that they arose against Wamdesapa and compelled him to flee from the band to save his life. A few renegade Indians accompanied him. From that time the Wakpekutas disowned him and refused to have any relations with him whatever. Wamdesapa wandered out into South Dakota and located about the lakes near the site of Madison, and hunted along the Vermilion River. As there were no settlers in that country he was left to his own devices.

A son was born to Wamdesapa, and was named Inkpaduta, meaning "scarlet point" or "red end." Inkpaduta inherited his father's awful temper and all of his vices. He was intelligent, shrewd, treacherous, and without shame. All history does not reveal a more terrible character. Wamdesapa died in 1848 and Inkpaduta succeeded to the chieftainship of the small band of bad Indians he had gathered about him. In the very first year of his chieftainship his cousin, The War Eagle That May Be Seen, chief of the Wakpekutas, was hunting in what is now Murray County, Minnesota, when Inkpaduta stole into his camp in the night time and killed the young chief and seventeen of his people. As the white settlements began to extend into western Iowa and western Minnesota Inkpaduta spent much of his time raiding the settlements, stealing stock, and annoying the settlers.

By the spring of 1857 a considerable settlement had grown up about Spirit Lake on the northern border of Iowa. In March of that year Inkpaduta visited this settlement with his entire band, consisting of eleven lodges. He fell upon the settlement and utterly destroyed it, killing forty-two persons in all. Four women—Mrs. Thatcher, Mrs. Marble, Mrs. Noble, and a young girl named Abbie Gardner—were carried into captivity. The suffering and abuse to which these victims were subjected can not be described. During the march into Dakota the very heavy snows were melting and the country was flooded. At Flandreau the party crossed the Big Sioux River upon a fallen tree. Mrs. Thatcher was pushed from this log into the river and tortured to death while in the icy flood. Time and again she was permitted to reach the shore, and while climbing the slippery bank was clubbed back into the water, until she was finally exhausted. The party then went into camp at Lake Herman, near Madison.

Two Christian Indians from the settlement at Lac qui Parle, Greyfoot and Sounding Heavens, who were hunting on the Big Sioux, learned that Inkpaduta had white captives at Lake Herman and went out to attempt their rescue. They were
Greyfoot able, with the means at hand, to secure the purchase of only one of the women. Mrs. Marble was selected and they took her back to the settlements.

Two missionaries, Drs. Riggs and Williamson, and the Indian agent Judge Charles E. Flandrau, at once undertook to secure the rescue of the other captives.
John Other Day They knew it to be impossible for white men to approach Inkpaduta's camp, so they asked Indians to volunteer to go. Three Christian Indians, John Other Day, Paul Mazakutemane, and Iron Hawk, undertook the mission. They were well supplied with provisions and goods to trade for the captives. They followed Greyfoot's trail back to Lake Herman to find that Inkpaduta had abandoned that camp. They took his trail and followed him northwest from Lake Herman to the mouth of Snake River on the west side of the James River, two miles south of Ashton in Spink County, where they found the girl Abbie Gardner in a large camp of several hundred Yanktons. Mrs. Noble had been brutally murdered two days before, by Roaring Cloud, a worthy son of Inkpaduta's.
Little Crow The Christian Indians succeeded in buying Abbie Gardner and safely conducted her to her friends. This lady, in 1905, was still living upon the old homestead at Spirit Lake, where her family was massacred.

The government took no suitable action to punish Inkpaduta for his horrible outrage. Though more than forty years had passed since the Wakpekutas drove away and disowned the Inkpaduta band, the government determined to hold the band responsible for Inkpaduta's conduct, and to withhold their annuities until he had been brought in and punished. The Indians thought this most unfair, but agreed to do their best to punish the outlaw. Just at this time Roaring Cloud, the young fiend who had murdered Mrs. Noble, appeared at Yellow Medicine Agency, on the Minnesota River, and he was shot and killed by a posse under Judge Flandrau, who attempted his arrest. A war party of Santees was organized, under the command of the famous chief Little Crow, and they proceeded from the Minnesota River into South Dakota in pursuit of Inkpaduta. After trailing him for a long distance, they finally located the outlaw and his band at Lake Thompson, in what is now Kingsbury County, where a sharp battle occurred. Two of Inkpaduta's sons and two of his soldiers were killed, but Inkpaduta escaped. The Indians, regarding this as a sufficient punishment, returned to the Minnesota, and no further action was taken by the government.