USA > Iowa > Dickinson County > History of Dickinson County, Iowa, together with an account of the Spirit Lake massacre, and the Indian troubles on the northwestern frontier > Part 3
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DICKINSON COUNTY - IOWA
step-son from home, carrying things with a high hand generally. After Lott and his step-son had left the house, a younger boy, Milton Lott, a lad of about twelve years of age, attempted to follow them. It was in December. The night was intensely cold, and after following them for some miles the boy became exhausted and froze to death. This embittered Lott against the Indians to an intense degree. After a short time he re- turned to the old place and remained there until after the death of his wife, which occurred a few years later, after which he changed his location, and in 1853 he and his step-son settled at Lott's Creek, on the east branch of the Des Moines River, in Humboldt County. They had been established there but a short time when Sidominadotah and his family of nine per- sons pitched their camp a short distance below on the other side of the river.
Burning with the desire to avenge the injuries they had re- ceived from this chief and his band five years before at the mouth of the Boone River, they conceived the diabolical plot of destroying the entire party. To accomplish this they went to the chief's lodge and reported that they had seen a herd of elk feeding on the bottom, and asked him to go with them and try to get one. He, suspecting nothing, prepared at once to accompany them. When some dis- tance from the chief's lodge they shot him dead on the spot. After nightfall they returned to his lodge and murdered the balance of the family, including the aged mother of the chief, except two children, one a girl about ten years of age and a boy still older. The little girl had concealed herself in some bushes, and the boy they had left for dead on the ground, but he recovered. This boy was afterward known to the frontier settlers as "Indian Josh," and lived some time with a family, on the west fork of the Des Moines in Palo Alto County, by the name of Carter. AAfter finishing their terrible work, Lott
31
MILITARY POSTS
and his step-son loaded what they could of their portables into a wagon and the balance they piled up in their cabin and set it on fire, then hitching their mules to the wagon they left the place. Following down the divide between the Des Moines and Boone Rivers, they continued their course in a southerly direction until they struck the great overland trail to Cali- fornia, which was then thronged with emigrants. Joining a party of these, they crossed the plains to California, where it is said Lott was shortly afterwards killed in a quarrel. The murder of the chief was not discovered for two weeks, and it was later still before it was known the Lotts were the guilty parties, and they were so far on their way by that time that no pursuit was attempted.
Inasmuch as everything calculated to throw light upon the relations existing between the settlers and the Sioux, during this interesting period, becomes more valuable as the difficulty in the way of securing correct information increases, the fol- lowing extraets from Harvey Ingham's "Scraps of Early His- tory," published in the Upper Des Moines, will be read with interest :
"Fort Dodge was established as the frontier outpost of northern Iowa in 1850, just four years after Fort Des Moines was abandoned. Fort Des Moines was located in 1843 and occupied by troops until 1846, the years during which the Sacs and Foxes were being removed from the state. Between the occupancy of the two forts the Sioux came prominently into notice, driving out every white man who attempted to push into their territory and trying to stem the tide of emigration to the Northwest. The event which, more than any other, lod to the establishment of the fort, was old Sidominadotah's attack upon Marsh, a government surveyor, in 1848. Sidominadotah is one of the conspicuous figures in our pioneer history. Ho was a brother of Inkpadutah and leader of a band of Wahpe- kntah outlaws. He was commonly called Chief Two Fingers, having lost the remainder of his right hand in battle. Major Williams knew him well and has left an accurate description
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DICKINSON COUNTY - IOWA
of him. He says: 'Sidominadotah was a man about five feet ten in height, stout and well formed, very active, had a pierc- ing black eye, broad face and high cheek bones.' The major adds an item to the description which certainly entitles Sido- minadotah to be called the man with the iron jaw: 'Both rows of teeth were double all around in both jaws.' A dentist could ihave paid off all of the old scores of the white race at one sit- ting. When killed he was forty-five or fifty years of age. He evidently was the leader of all the bands of the northern Sioux at that time, or, at least, held a prominent place among the leaders, for nearly all the attacks upon the whites who began to invade the territory north and west of Des Moines were led by him."
Here follows the detailed account of the attack on the sur- . veying party when their instruments were destroyed, their sup- plies taken from them and they were obliged to abandon their work. Mr. Ingham's account continues :
"Marsh made a report to the government which, taken in connection with reports of other outrages, caused the order to bring troops into the Northwest. Brigadier Gen- eral Mason was ordered in 1849 to locate the new fort as nearly as possible to the northwest corner of the Neutral Ground. He chose the site where the city of Fort Dodge now stands and named the new post Fort Clarke. In 1851 General. Winfield Scott changed the name to Fort Dodge, in honor of General Henry Dodge." (Another reason for the change of name was that there was another Fort Clarke in the southwest, and a great deal of annoyance was occasioned by supplies that were intended for one going wrong and eventually reaching the other.) "Com- pany E of the Sixth Infantry, U. S. A., came from Fort Snell- ing to occupy it. With this company Major Williams came as sutler. When the pioneer history of northwestern Towa is written, Major Williams will be the central figure. He was part of all that happened in the early years. When after three years and a half Fort Dodge was abandoned and the troops were ordered north to build Fort Ridgley, he remained, and buying the ground and buildings of the dismantled forti- fications, founded the city which perpetuates its name. Fort Dodge was then and afterwards the central point in the upper
N
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SCRAPS OF EARLY HISTORY
Des Moines region. Major Williams was associated intimately * .* with all the stirring events along the entire frontier.
"During the years of occupancy of the fort, Major Williams became acquainted with the various Sioux bands and their Icad- ers. He has left very interesting descriptions of the latter. His estimate of the character of the outfit tallies with that before given of the Wahpekutahs. 'The Sioux Indians,' he says, 'who inhabited this district of country, were the most desperate characters, made up of renegades from all the bands.' They were generally very active, stout Indians, and great horsemen. The majority of them were well armed with guns. They always had in their posses- sion horses and mules with white men's brands. They gener- ally encamped on high ground where they could not be easily surprised, and when any number of them were together, they eneamped in a circle. They were very expert hunters. Their famous leaders, Sidominadotah and Inkpadutah, were very stout, active men, also Titonka and Umpashota; in fact, all of them. Of Inkpadntah, who led in the Spirit Lake Massacre. and who was present in person at the raid on Mr. Call and the settlers south of Algona in 1855, he says: 'Inkpadutah was about fifty-five years old, about five feet eleven inches in height, stoutly built, broad shouldered, high cheek bones, sunken and very black sparkling eyes, big mouth, light copper color and pockmarked in the face.'
"Umpashota is of scarcely less interest, as he is the Indian who visited with W. H. Ingham three days on the upper Des Moines when each one was figuring on who was in charge of the expedition, and his name is also associated with the legend of Spirit Lake."
Here follows a description of Umpashota (Smoky Day), also of Titonka, or Big Buffalo, and Ishtahaba, or Young Sleepy Eye :
"Besides these there were Cosomench, dark, silent, stealthy : Wahkonsa, Umpashota's son, a dude, painting his checks, forehead and chin with stars; Modocaquemon, Inkpadntah's oldest son, who was shot for his part in the Spirit Lake Mas- sacro, with low forehead, scowling face and thick lips; Moco- poco, Inkpadutah's second son, sullen and ill-favored. *
* * The soldiers were ordered to leave the fort in September, 1853.
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DICKINSON COUNTY - JOWA
* * It was after the abandonment of the fort that the outrages most intimately associated with our early history were perpetrated. Of these, by far the most important in its after effects was the murder of Sidominadotah and his family by Henry Lott, at Bloody Run, in Humboldt County, in Janu- ary, 1854 .. Major Williams records one fact in connection with the Sioux that is very singular. In all the raids made by them a very large negro was a prominent participant. The soldiers tried often to capture him, but failed. He was one of the boldest and most reckless of the savages in every ontrage that was perpetrated in these years."
More space has been given the foregoing extracts than was at first intended, but really reliable information is so difficult to obtain that it was deemed best to use what was available.
Upon the death of Sidominadotah, his brother, Inkpadutah, sometimes known as Scarlet Point or Red End, became chief of the band. This chief was known to be bold, reckless, cruel and bloodthirsty, and it is not difficult to imagine the effect such a tragedy as the one heretofore related would have upon a character such as he. It is a well known characteristic of all the aboriginal tribes that if they cannot take their revenge on the party from whom they received their injuries, they are ready to wreak their vengeance upon the first. party they come in contact with, no matter how innocent. Many an honest and industrious frontiersman has had to pay with his life for the wrong done by some reckless, worthless, unscrupulous, border character just out of pure wan- tonness. It is the same old story so often repeated in our fron- tier history. In view of the condition of affairs just related, the relations between this band of Indians and the settlers will be readily understood to be anything but cordial. It is but natural to presume that the arrogant and imperious character of Tukpadutah drove many of the more peaceably inclined Indians ont of his band. It is possible, too, that the prospect of being deprived of their annuities sent a great number of this
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UNFRIENDLY RELATIONS
band back to the main tribe. At any rate the numerical strength of the band became rapidly depleted. What had been a tribe of respectable strength was soon reduced to a few fami- lies of stragglers. The strength of the band, after the death of Sidominadotah, has been variously estimated at from fifty to one hundred and fifty. In 1856 it dwindled down below the lowest figure.
Judge Flandran, who was Indian Agent at that time, says of them: "By 1857 all that remained of Wamdisappi's band was under the chieftainship of Inkpadutah, or Scarlet Point, sometimes called Red End. In August, 1856, I received the appointment of United States Indian Agent for the Sionx of the Mississippi. The agencies for these Indians were on the Minnesota River at Redwood and on the Yellow Medicine River a few miles from its month. Having been on the frontier sometime previous to such appointment, I had become quite familiar with the Sioux and knew in a general way of Inkpa- dutah and his band, its habits and whereabouts. They ranged the country far and wide and were considered a bad lot of vagabonds. In 1856 they came to the payment and demanded a share of the money of the Wahpekutahs, and made a great deal of trouble, but were forced to return to their haunts on the Big Sioux and adjoining country. To this Mrs. Sharp adds : 'According to the most anthentie testimony collected by Major Prichette, Inkpadutah came to the Sioux Agency in the fall of 1855 and received annuities for eleven persons, although he was not identified with any band.' "
It may seem singular to some that in preparing a history of Dickinson County so much time and space should be given to people and events wholly outside of the county. It may also seem that too much space has been given in endeavoring to set forth who Inkpadutah and his band were, their relations to the Ageney Indians, also the strained relations between them
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DICKINSON COUNTY - IOWA
and the settlers, and the cause thereof. This may be true, but it is the experience of the writer that many of the tourists who visit the lakes from year to year are entirely ignorant of the facts in the matter and are also desirous of correct infor- mation on all of these points, and more questions are asked first and last involving a knowledge of them than any others. Many have expressed surprise that more has not been preserved, and that more is not known of the personal char- acter and personal history of individual Indians who in an early day made these lakes their favorite rendezvous. This is accounted for in the strained and unfriendly relations existing between the settlers and the Sioux. The fraternal rela- tions which so long existed between the Sacs and Foxes on the one side and the pioneer settlers of eastern and central Towa on the other, were entirely wanting on the northwestern frontier, and consequently very little is or can be known of the individual Indians who pitched their tepees in the groves, fished in the lakes and hunted on the prairies of northwestern Iowa. However, some enterprising real estate and hotel men have recently endeavored to supply this lack of real knowledge on these points by fictitious inventions of their own. Of late a great many questions are asked about Okoboji. Who was he ? Where were the headquarters of his band ? How many war- riors were among his followers ? and a thousand and one other questions which nobody but inquisitive summer tourists would think of.
A large mound on the west side of the lake has been pointed out to the credulous and unsuspecting summer resorter as being the last resting place of the great chief, or, in other words, as the grave of Okoboji. Ambitious correspondents of the Capital City papers have, at different times, tried their hands at writing up glowing accounts of their visits to the grave of the mythical chief, and many doubtless believe that the
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INKPADUTAH AND HIS BAND
representations made to them are true, and that the lake was actually named for a brave and powerful warrior who once lived in its groves and was buried in the mound on its western border, where his supposed resting place is pointed out by the obliging guide to the unsophisticated and inquisitive traveler. Now this is all pure fiction. There is not one particle of truth in it. So far as can be ascertained, no such chief as Okoboji was ever known to the Sioux, and no such Indian ever lived in the neighborhood of the lakes.
It will be remembered that the death of Sidominadotah occurred in January, 1854, and that the chieftainship fell to Inkpadutah at that time. We know but little of the wander- ings of Inkpadutah's band from then until the fall of 1856. The troubles in the neighborhood of Clear Lake, which finally culminated in what is known as the "Grindstone War," were in the summer of 1854. Harvey Ingham, in an article in the Midland Monthly, has this to say of their movements in 1855: "Major Williams expresses the opinion that but for the rapid influx of settlers an attack would have been made on Fort Dodge in 1855. As it was, Inkpadutah and his followers con- tented themselves with stripping trappers and surveyors, steal- ing horses, and foraging on seattered settlers, always maintain- ing a hostile and threatening attitude. Many pages of the Midland would be required for a brief emmeration of the petty annoyances, pilferings and more serious assaults which oc- curred. At Dakota City, in Humboldt County, the cabin of E. MeKnight was rifled in the spring of 1855. Further north, within a few miles of Algona, the cabin of Malachi Clark was entered, and the settlers gathered in great alarm to drive out the Indians-a band of eighty braves led by Inkpadutah in person. Still further north, near where Bancroft stands, W. H. Ingham was captured by Umpashota, a leader under Ink-
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DICKINSON COUNTY - IOWA
pudatah in the massacre, and was held a prisoner for three days."
Judge Fulton writes of this same period as follows: "Dur- ing the same summer (1855) Chief Inkpadutah and his band, comprising about fifty lodges, encamped in the timber near where Algona now stands. They occasionally pillaged the cabins of the white settlers in that vicinity. At last the whites notified them to leave, which they did reluctantly. They returned no more to that vicinity except in small hunting par ties."
CHAPTER III.
DICKINSON COUNTY -- NAME-FIRST EXPLORA- TION-FRENCH TRADERS-LEWIS AND CLARKE- .
NICOLLET AND FREMONT- THE FAMOUS ASTRO- NOMICAL OBSERVATION-THE FIRST ATTEMPT AT SETTLEMENT IN 1856-SETTLEMENTS IN ADJOIN- ING COUNTIES.
D ICKINSON COUNTY was named in honor of Hon. Daniel S. Diekinson, formerly United States Senator . from the state of New York. The student of political history will be at no loss to fix the date of the naming of the counties of Iowa, fully fifteen per cent, or about one-sixth, of which were named for prominent men in the councils of the nation about the mid- dle of the Nineteenth Century. Benton, Buchanan, Calhoun, Cass, Clayton, Dickinson, Polk, Dallas, Wright and Woodbury, together with several others, all smack strongly of the same period, the forties and fifties. How long the country had been known, or what was known of the country at that time, it is difficult to find out. In endeavoring to investigate this subject we are at once brought face to face with the fact that but very little has been written and that very little is known about it. Spirit Lake has been known of for a hundred years, and how much longer, we don't know. The time when it passes from legend to history is the early part of the Nineteenth Century. An interesting and instructive paper written by Prof. Charles Keyes for the October, 1898, number of the Au- nals of Iowa, in discussing the origin and meaning of the word Des Moines, as applied to the Des Moines River, uses this lan- guage : "At the beginning of the present century the Des
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DICKINSON COUNTY - IOWA
Moines River was one of the principal routes of travel to and from the Northwest. St. Louis was the great trading post of the region. The Indian and French voyageurs paddled their canoes up-stream, passing through several little lakes near the headwaters and then on to the Hudson Bay region. This was a waterway practically unobstructed from the northern fur country to the lower Mississippi."
The article which occupies six pages of the Annals of Iowa is illustrated with three maps, the largest one of which was copied from an old map made as early as 1720. This map shows the Des Moines as much larger than either the Missis- sippi or Missouri, and as having its source in a lake many times larger than the combined area of all the lakes in Iowa. The question at once arises, Did any of the early travelers in their journeys from the Mississippi Valley to the Saskatchawan country ever go so far to one side of their usual route as to pass through the lake region ? It is more than probable that they did, but if so, when was it done and where is the record ?
The famous Lewis and Clarke expedition up the Missouri River was made in 1804. The Louisiana Purchase was made in 1803, and this expedition was fitted out for the purpose of examining and reporting on the character and resources of the newly acquired possessions. They had for their guide and in- terpreter a Frenchman by the name of M. Durion, who had been much with the Indians and spoke the Dacotah language fluently. He imparted to them a vast deal of information relative to the country adjoining that through which they were passing. This information they made a record of and have given it to the public. While his statements are not strictly accurate in all particulars, they are sufficiently so to convince any person that he had a pretty good general idea of the geog- raphy of the country, whether he had ever seen it or not.
Judge Fulton, in the "Red Men of Iowa," writing on this
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FIRST ACCOUNTS OF THE LAKE REGION
subject, says : "Lewis and Clarke's French interpreter described other localities in the country of the Sioux nation now known to be within the boundaries of Iowa, with sufficient accuracy . to warrant the conclusion that he had some knowledge of the geography of the country, though not strictly accurate in some respects. He described the Little Sioux as having its source within nine miles of the Des Moines, as passing through a large lake nearly sixty miles in circumference and dividing it into two parts which approach each other very closely, as being very irregular in its width, as having many islands, and as being known by the name of Lac D'Esprit, or Spirit Lake. This lake in the country of the Sioux, from the carliest knowledge of white men the chief seat of one of the Sioux tribes, is now known by the name of Spirit Lake and Lake Okoboji." So far as can be ascertained, this is the first and oldest written ac- count of the Spirit Lake region. The region must have been, and doubtless was, frequently visited by hunters, trappers and adventurers during the early part of the century, but they left no written account of their explorations or discoveries. The treaties relative to the "Neutral Line" and the "Neutral Ground," which were intended to define the boundary between the country of the Sacs and Foxes on the south and the Sioux on the north, were negotiated, the former in 1825 and the latter in 1830, but whether these lines were surveyed or even exam- ined at the time, we are in total ignorance.
The first really authentic account we have of the lake region is that contained in the official report of the government ex- ploring expedition by the younger Nicollet. During Van Buren's administration Nicollet was appointed by the Secretary of War to make a map of the hydrographic basin of the upper Mississippi River. The appointment was made on the 7th day of April, 1838. In the body of his report, speaking of the Lit- tle Sioux, he uses the following language: "It has been here-
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DICKINSON COUNTY - IOWA
iofore designated as the Little Sioux, and has its origin from a group of lakes, the most important of which is called by the Sioux 'Minnie Waukon,' or 'Spirit Water,' hence its name of Spirit Lake." Nicollet makes no mention of the Okobojis, but simply designates the whole group of them by the single name "Spirit Lake." In another portion of the report the following astronomical observation is recorded :
Place of observation: Spirit Lake, about the middle of the northern shore.
Altitude above the Gulf of Mexico
North Latitude
Longitude West from Greenwich
Authority
In Time
In Arc
h
m s
1310 feet
43°30' 211
6 20 26
95° 6' 30''
Nicollet
It will be readily seen that the point from which this obser- vation was taken cannot be far from where Crandall's Lodge was afterwards located. It is not at all probable that many, if
NORTH SHORE OF SPIRIT LAKE Where the observation by Nicollet and Fremont was taken.
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THE ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATION
any, of the hundreds of visitors who every summer sport on the sandy beach or bathe in the crystal waters of that charm- ing region are aware that they are treading on ground made historie by reason of its being the first of which any mention is made or record preserved in all northwestern Iowa.
The old Nicollet maps, or imperfect copies of them, were much in evidence back in the fifties. They showed the larger portion of Spirit Lake as being north of the state line. The state line was not surveyed until several years after these maps were made and consequently the northern boundary of the state had not then been determined. Nicollet's assistant and companion in this expedition was a man with whose name the world has since become familiar, being none other than General John C. Fremont, then a young engineer in the service of the United States, afterwards the gallant "Pathfinder of the Rockies," the first republican candidate for the presidency, and a prominent major general in the Union army during the War of the Rebellion. It is more than probable that the ob- servation before noticed was taken by him and the record made in his handwriting. If this be so, it can be safely asserted that - John C. Fremont was the first explorer of the Spirit Lake re-
gion to give to the world an account of his discoveries. From this time on the lakes were frequently visited by hunters, trap- pers and adventurers up to the time when the state was ad- mitted to the Union in 1846.
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