CHAPTER XXI
THE SPIRIT LAKE MASSACRE
THE MASSACRE AND THE EVENTS WHICH LED UP TO IT.
INKPADUTAH
The crowning figure in the famous Spirit Lake massacre was undoubtedly
Inkpadutah, the Wahpekutah Sioux Chieftain. In him was combined
all the bravery, revenge, cruelty and arrogance of the Sioux tribe; he was
an Indian in every sense of the word. Before narrating the part he played
in the tragedy of Dickinson County something shall be told of the events
leading up to the murderous raid upon the settlements in 1857.
It is related elsewhere in this book there were four bands of Sioux on
the Minnesota River, following the treaty of 1851. There were two
agencies ‐ known as the Upper and the Lower ‐ the former on the
Yellow Medicine River, about three miles from the mouth, and the latter
on the Minnesota River, five miles below the Redwood and thirteen miles
above old Fort Ridgley. The four tribes, or bands, were divided equally
between the two.
The Wahpekutah band was identified with the Lower Agency. Wamdisappi
was one of their principal chiefs and he, with a small portion of the
band, afterward deserted the main body and his tribe became Nomads.
They were outlaws. In this band was Sidominadotah, a brother of Inkpadutah.
In Harvey Ingham's "Scraps of Early History" the following is
said of him: "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 promi‐