>>9852965
What really happened
Of Course Fake News gives no context for the 38 hangings
>https://www.iowanationalguard.com/History/History/Pages/Spirit-Lake-Massacre.aspx
The Spirit Lake Massacre and the Northern and Southern Border Brigades
History of The Iowa National Guard
1LT Stephen N. Kallestad, CW2 David L. Snook and LTC (Ret) Michael J. Musel
During the Civil War, 76,000 Iowa soldiers served their state and nation. Most fought in the great campaigns in the Mississippi Valley and in the South. Often overlooked, however, are two brigades – the Northern and Southern Border Brigades – that defended the borders of Iowa itself.
The threats that brought these brigades into existence were real but different. To the north, settlers faced an uprising among the Sioux Indians. To the south, the danger came from pro-Confederate border raiders.
The fears of western Iowans regarding the Sioux can be traced back to the 1850s. In the late 1840s and the early 1850s, settlers in Northwest Iowa moved beyond Fort Dodge and into areas unprotected by military garrisons. Considered intruders by the Indians (in this case, the Wapekutah Sioux), the settlers were bound to face difficulties. By most accounts, the Indians generally acted in a civil manner. The Indians were also conscious of the existing treaty and they knew the white people were not to encroach on Indian land.
In December 1846, a band of Wapekutahs, led by Sidominadotah (Two Fingers), traced some stolen horses to the cabin of Henry Lott, who was living on Indian land, at the confluence of the Des Moines and Boone rivers. Mr. Lott was known to steal Indian horses. At the time of the raid, Henry Lott and his stepson were on the other side of the Boone River and observed the Indian activity. Lott’s twelve-year-old son Milton was directed to gather all the ponies on the farm. Frightened, and without dressing properly for the weather, he panicked and fled down the Des Moines river looking for his father and froze to death before finding him. Lott and his stepson left the area in 1847 after Mrs. Lott died from natural causes.
Henry Lott and his stepson, several years later, moved north into Humboldt County where Lott struck back at the Indians in January of 1854. Finding Sidominadotah and his band camped on the Des Moines River about 30 miles north of Fort Dodge, Lott and his stepson attacked the camp, killing the chief, his mother, his wife, and their four children.
Inkpadutah, Sidominadotah’s younger brother, became the new leader of the band and vowed revenge.Lott and his stepson left Iowa for California. Incidents between the settlers and the Indians continued, culminating with the killing of a young Indian man accused of making lewd advances to a Mrs. Gillett, wife of one of the settlers in the area. Unable to find the Gilletts, who had wisely left the area,Inkpadutah’s band turned their anger on the remaining settlers.
On March 8, 1857, Inkpadutah and his band began attacking the scattered cabins of settlers in the vicinity of Spirit Lake and Lake Okoboji. The bloodshed also spread to the nearby town of Springfield, Minnesota.
Massacre of Rowland Gardner and family at Spirit Lake by Sioux Indians, 1857
Thirty-eight settlers were slain, including James and Mary Mattock and their five children.A relief expedition from Fort Dodge, led by Major William Williams, buried the victims and made a futile attempt to track down the perpetrators of the massacre. Williams found enough bloody clothing and other evidence to conclude that 15 to 20 Indians had probably been either killed or wounded.
Four women were carried off from their cabins at Spirit Lake. Lydia Noble was beaten to death, and Elizabeth Thatcher was drowned. Margaret Noble was bought from Inkpadutah’s band for $1,000, and Abbie Gardner was purchased by a $1,200 ransom appropriated by the Minnesota legislature.
Inkpadutah was never apprehended, but he and his followers left the State of Iowa, never to return.