cry moar
always playing the victim
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.
The Northern Border Brigade
In 1862, only five years after the Spirit Lake Massacre and one year after federal troops were pulled from the frontier to fight in the Civil War,the Santee Sioux went on the warpathin southern Minnesota, near the northern border of Iowa. Five thousand people fledafter 600 settlers were killed and 100 women and children were captured by the Indians.With only 91 soldiers of the Sioux City Cavalry available to protect the entire western and northern borders of the state, Governor Samuel Kirkwood authorized the formation of a "Northern Border Brigade" and a chain of forts along Iowa’s northern border with Minnesota.
The new brigade was to consist of six troops of cavalry. Each troop was authorized a strength of not less than forty and not more than eighty men. Each man volunteering was to furnish his own horse and equipment. Two hundred and fifty men were mustered and formed cavalry troops in Sioux City, Denison, Crawford County, Fort Dodge, Webster County and Spirit Lake-Chain Lake.
After formation, the new units, made up of untrained citizen soldiers, moved north to build a fortified line along the state’s northern border and to convince the settlers to return to their abandoned farms. Getting people back to their farms was of paramount importance, as Union troops battling the Confederacy needed huge quantities of food. Under these circumstances, every Union farmer was important. Blockhouses or stockades were built at Correctionville, Cherokee, Peterson, Estherville, Chain Lake and Spirit Lake.
These fortifications were built of wood or sod. In Spirit Lake, they built a fort by encircling the brick courthouse with a wooden stockade. The entire chain of fortifications was completed by June of 1863.
September of 1863 saw the routing of the Santee Sioux in the Dakota Territory by Union troops under General Sully. With the need for frontier protection ended, the Northern Border Brigade’s mission was complete. The 1864 Adjutant General’s Report notes that the Northern Border Brigade had been disbanded.