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In the spring of 1857, the renegade Wahpekute Dakota Chief Inkpaduta
and his band of warriors descended on the homesteads near Spirit Lake in
northwestern Iowa and committed murder and mayhem. The causes of the
massacre are still debated. One reason can be traced to an 1854 episode
when a whiskey trader and horse thief, Henry Lott, and his son killed,
among others, Inkpaduta's blood brother Sintomniduta and Sintomniduta's
wife and five children. Inkpaduta (meaning 'Scarlet Point' or 'Red Cap')
appealed to the military to punish Henry Lott, but the killer fled and
was indicted in absentia. The prosecuting attorney, Granville Berkley,
took Sintomniduta's head and skewered it on a pole over his house in a
gross act of contempt. Lott was never found, and justice was never
served.
During an elk hunt in Woodbury County in the winter of 1856, a Wahpekute
hunter shot a dog that bit him, and the enraged owner, a white man, beat
the Indian senseless. This Indian, whose name is apparently lost to
history, then claimed to have conversed with the Great Spirit and been
told that the white people who were responsible for all the Indians'
suffering must be destroyed. When other Wahpekutes stole the cattle, hay
and corn of nearby settlers, 20 armed whites led by Captain Seth Smith
rode into Inkpaduta's camp and demanded the Indians surrender all their
firearms. Inkpaduta stated that his people could not survive the winter
without guns for hunting. Unmoved by Inkpaduta's plea, Smith confiscated
the weapons. The whites planned to come back the next day to escort
Inkpaduta and his band from the area and give them back their guns, but
the plan failed. When they returned the next day, the Indians were gone.
Seeking revenge, Inkpaduta took to raiding in northern Iowa in February
1857. At Lost Island Lake, one of Inkpaduta's warriors approached the
Gillett cabin, trying to steal food, weapons and livestock. The settler
shot and decapitated the raider. On the Little Sioux River in Clay
County, Inkpaduta's band attacked Ambrose S. Mead's home, killed his
cattle, knocked down his wife and attempted to capture his 10-year-old
daughter, Emma. When she resisted, the chief beat her with a stick and
carried off 17-year-old Hattie instead. Inkpaduta knocked down Mr. E.
Taylor, threw his son into the fireplace, badly burning his leg, and
carried off his wife. Hattie Mead and Mrs. Taylor were released after
one night in the Indian camp.
On March 7, the Indians arrived at Okoboji and Spirit lakes. The Dakotas
considered Spirit Lake a sacred dwelling place for the gods. The Indians
were not permitted to fish from those lakes or even place a canoe in the
waters. The sight of the log cabins and fences incensed them, according
to one account, to 'bloodlust and butchery,' for this was viewed as an
invasion of their sacred shores.
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A number of white settlers were unluckily caught in this proverbial
powder keg at the wrong place and time. They had arrived at the lakes'
pristine shores in July 1856 and had selected them as the ideal place to
live. The region, beautiful and teeming with fish and wildlife, was
previously unknown to the civilized world. Roland Gardner built his home
on the south side of West Okoboji Lake. He and his wife, Frances, shared
the house with their three youngest children — Eliza Matilda (16),
Abigail (13), Roland Jr. (6) — and their married eldest daughter, Mary,
and her family. Mary and Harvey Luce had two children, Albert (4) and
Amanda (1). Six other families and several single men were also drawn to
this area, which became known as the Spirit Lake settlement. Residents
Lydia Noble (21), Elizabeth Thatcher (19) and Margaret Marble (20) were
all soon to share a common fate. Alvin and Lydia Noble, with their
2-year-old child, and Joseph and Elizabeth Thatcher with their
7-month-old child, lived in one cabin on the east side of East Okoboji
Lake. Lydia and Elizabeth were cousins. William and Margaret Marble
lived in Marble Grove on the west shore of Spirit Lake.
On Sunday morning, March 8, 1857, Inkpaduta and his warriors barged into
the Gardner cabin and demanded breakfast. While Frances Gardner fed
them, a warrior grabbed Roland's gun and removed the firing mechanism.
Roaring Cloud, one of Inkpaduta's twin sons, demanded more food, but
none remained. He pointed his gun at Harvey Luce, who grabbed the barrel
and prevented the Indian from firing. After a few tense moments, the
Indians left the cabin. About 9 a.m., bachelors Dr. Isaac H. Harriott
and Bertell A. Snyder came by, knowing that Roland was about to leave
for Fort Dodge for provisions. They wanted him to mail their letters,
but Roland was worried about the Indians and refused to leave. Harriott
and Snyder departed with their letters.
About midday the Indians took Gardner's cattle, killed them and headed
for the Mattock cabin. James Mattock, his wife and five children had
built their home south of the strait between East Okoboji Lake and West
Okoboji Lake. Living with Mattock was Mr. Madison and his 18-year-old
son, Robert. Dr. Harriott, Bert Snyder and the Granger brothers, William
and Carl, lived together in one cabin, between the two Okoboji lakes.
The Indians attacked the cabins, killing everyone and burning the
dwellings. They found Carl Granger near his cabin, shot him and chopped
off the top of his head with a broad-ax. Only William Granger survived,
because he was visiting relatives in Red Wing, Minnesota Territory.
Back at the Gardner cabin, the settlers were discussing their options.
At 2 in the afternoon, Harvey Luce and a visitor, Robert Clark, went to
warn their neighbors about possible Indian trouble. Two hours later,
when Roland Gardner stepped out of the cabin, he saw nine Indians fast
approaching. He called out, 'We are all doomed to die!' Although he did
not want to give up without a fight, his wife took an opposing view. 'If
we have to die, let us die innocent of shedding blood,' Frances Gardner
said.
Honoring his wife's wish, Roland did not resist as the Indians entered
his home and demanded flour. As he went to the flour barrel they shot
him in the heart. The Indians then grabbed Frances Gardner and Mary Luce
and held their arms tight, while others took rifles and bashed in their
heads. They were dragged outside and finished off. Abigail Gardner sat
in a chair in a state of shock. The Indians tore her sister's baby from
her arms, dragged Roland Jr. and Mary's toddler outside, beat them with
stove wood and left them for dead. Seeing her family dead or dying
around her, Abbie begged the Indians to kill her too. They grabbed the
13-year-old by the arm and indicated she would not be killed, but would
be taken prisoner. 'All the terrible tortures and indignities I had ever
read or heard of being inflicted upon their captives now arose in horrid
vividness before me,' she recalled in an 1885 narrative, History of the
Spirit Lake Massacre and the Captivity of Miss Abbie Gardner.
The Dakotas scalped the dead, plundered the house and took Abbie to
their camp about a mile away, near the Mattock place. She saw the cabin
in flames and heard the screams of two people as they burned to death.
Around the house were the bodies of five men, two women and four
children. Robert Clark and Harvey Luce were shot on the southern shore
of East Okoboji, bringing the day's death total to 20 whites.
Abbie Gardner spent her first night of captivity at the Indians' camp
near the ruins of the Mattock cabin, while the Indians celebrated by
singing, dancing and drumming until early morning. Having whetted their
appetites for murder, Inkpaduta's cohorts searched for more prey. They
found Joel Howe on the trail, shot him down and hacked off his head. A
Mr. Ring discovered the skull two years later on the south beach of East
Okoboji. Warriors entered Howe's home, killed his wife, Rheumilla Ashley
Howe, sons Jonathan (25), Alphred (16), Jacob M. (14), William P. (12),
Levi (9), daughter Sardis (18), a young woman and old Mrs. Noble.
Next stop was the Noble and Thatcher
cabin. Lydia Howe Noble was the daughter of Joel and Rheumilla
Howe. She was born in Ohio in 1836. When she married Alvin
Noble, they moved to the east shore of East Okoboji Lake. The
Indians burst into the cabin and shot Alvin and visitor Enoch
Ryan. They then took a 2-year-old child from Lydia Noble and a
7-month-old infant from Elizabeth Thatcher, and bashed their
brains out on a nearby oak tree. The raiders killed all the
livestock, plundered the house and took Lydia Noble and
Elizabeth Thatcher prisoner. Retracing their path to Howe's
cabin, they stopped to gather more treasures. Lydia discovered
her mother, Rheumilla, under the bed with her skull crushed by a
flat iron and her red eyes peering out of their sockets 'like
balls of fire.' The Indians found Jacob Howe sitting in the
yard, still alive; they quickly killed him, and then continued
on to their camp. They placed the three female captives in one
tepee for a short time, allowing them to compare experiences.
Abbie, Lydia and Elizabeth were then put in separate tepees and
ordered to braid their hair and grease their faces so they took
on an Indian appearance.
On March 9, Morris Markham, who was living at the Noble-Thatcher
household for the winter, passed by the Gardner home after having been
gone two days rounding up livestock. After discovering the bodies, he
continued to Howe's home and found more corpses; the same ghastly scene
greeted him at the Noble-Thatcher home. Realizing this had been the work
of marauding Indians, Markham thought it best to alert the settlement of
Springfield (now Jackson, Minn.), about 18 miles north. There, he found
Eliza Gardner, who had been visiting in Springfield with Dr. and Mrs.
Strong, and reported that her entire family had been murdered except
possibly for Abbie, whose body he did not find.
The next day, Inkpaduta moved the encampment three miles west. Abbie was
enlisted to drive one of the sleds pulled by a team of stolen horses. On
March 11, they moved to Marble's Grove on the west side of Spirit Lake.
On the 13th, the Indians stumbled upon the Marble homestead. William
Marble was unaware that marauding Indians had been in the area for
several days. The Marbles welcomed the braves into their home and fed
them. Then the native visitors traded for Mr. Marble's rifle and
challenged him to a target shoot. After several shots, the target fell
over. As William Marble turned to replace it, warriors shot him in the
back and stole his money belt containing $1,000 in gold. Margaret Ann
Marble viewed the contest from the cabin. She saw her husband murdered
and attempted to escape, but the Indians nabbed her and had her join the
other captives — Lydia Noble, Elizabeth Thatcher and Abbie Gardner. The
warriors concluded another bloody day with a festive war dance.
On March 26, 1857, Inkpaduta's band was camped at Heron Lake, about 15
miles from Springfield. Abbie Gardner noted that the warriors were all
regaled for battle, with scalping knives in their belts and rifles
loaded; they told the captives they were headed for Springfield. Abbie
was in agony over what might happen to her sister. She figured Eliza
'would either be killed, or share with me what I felt to be a worse fate
— that of a captive.' Had it not been for Morris Markham's warning, the
entire town might have been destroyed. As it was, the warriors still
achieved a partial surprise. They stole 12 horses, various dry goods,
food, powder, lead, clothing and quilts; then they killed Willie Thomas
(8), William Wood, George Wood, Mr. Stewart, his wife and two small
children.
The Indians packed up their camp the next morning and headed northwest.
Abbie Gardner and Lydia Noble carried packs that weighed about 70
pounds. Margaret Marble toted a pack and a pudgy Indian baby about 2
years old. The child was cumbersome, so at every opportunity Marble
would reach around, poke him in the face and make him cry. The Indian
women decided that the child disliked the white woman for some unknown
reason, so they took him away from her. The Indians had snowshoes to
make their trek easier, but the captives had none. Elizabeth Thatcher
was in great physical distress, suffering from phlebitis, what Abbie
called a 'broken breast,' and a combination of other maladies. She had
to trudge through deep snow, cross frigid rivers, chop and carry
firewood, cut poles for tents and perform other drudgery, yet she
displayed great perseverance throughout her suffering. The medicine man
did find a way to relieve her pain for a short time.
The provisions the warriors stole from the whites lasted about a month.
'The Indians have no equal as gormandizers,' Abbie Gardner said. 'They
are perfectly devoid of anything like delicacy of appetite, or taste, or
decency in that matter.' They ate rotting animals, she said, and picked
vermin off their babies' heads and chewed them with great relish. They
stuffed themselves at every chance and then, according to Abbie, 'lie
down and grunt and puff, like cattle gorged with grass in the
springtime; or like overfed swine.' The captives got the leftovers.
Two days after the Springfield encounter, there was a great commotion
when soldiers were seen approaching the raiders' camp. The Indian women
were sent away while the warriors placed a guard over the captives and
readied for battle. The soldiers, a 24-man detachment under Lieutenant
Alexander Murray sent from Fort Ridgely, searched the area for more than
an hour, but apparently could not find the Indian camp and turned back.
Their retreat saved the captives' lives, for they were going to be
killed had the soldiers attacked. Inkpaduta then had his group clear out
of the area. After a two-day march, Abbie Gardner could no longer walk
and refused to move. A female Indian swung a hoe over her head, but
Abbie just bowed her head and was ready to die. Instead, the woman
dropped her pack, grabbed Abbie's arm, hauled her up and pushed her
forward. Finally they stopped to camp for the night.
The Indians crossed icy rivers, and the captives nearly froze at night.
Two or three days passed between meals and the captives were glad to eat
the camp offal. When the horses died, the Indians feasted on their
remains. As a result, the captives got a little more food but were then
required to carry larger packs. They camped at the red pipestone
quarries (where natives have quarried the red stone, catlinite, for
centuries to make ceremonial pipes) in Minnesota Territory, and then
moved into land that would become Dakota Territory in 1861. They had
been on the go for six weeks.
On the Big Sioux River in the vicinity of Flandreau (a town that
sprouted in 1857 in what would become South Dakota), a 16-year-old
Indian removed Elizabeth Thatcher's pack from her back as she approached
a fallen tree bridge. Elizabeth had a premonition of death. 'If you are
so fortunate as to escape,' she called to Abbie, 'tell my dear husband
and parents that I desired to live and escape for their sakes.'
When Thatcher reached mid-stream, the teenage warrior shoved her into
the frigid water. Elizabeth swam to the shore and grabbed a tree root.
More Indians took clubs and poles and beat her back into the river.
Desperately she swam to the other shore, and once again the warriors
clubbed her back in. As she floated downstream, the Indians followed
along as if it was a grand game, clubbing and stoning her whenever she
neared shore. When they tired of the sport, they shot and killed the
19-year-old. Abbie Gardner called Elizabeth's death 'an act of wanton
barbarity.' Lydia Noble was so devastated by the murder of her cousin
that she gave up hope of rescue or escape, and implored Abbie to go to
the river with her 'and drown ourselves.' Abbie drew deep within her
Christian upbringing, found the will to survive, and declined the
suggestion. Lydia did not have the strength to act alone.
On May 6, 30 miles west of the Big Sioux River near Skunk Lake, two
Sioux brothers, Ma-kpe-ya-ha-ho-ton and Se-ha-ho-ta, from Minnesota
Territory's Yellow Medicine Reservation paid a visit to Inkpaduta. They
spent the night listening to Inkpaduta's exploits and offered to trade
for Abbie Gardner, but she was not for sale. Instead, they traded for
Margaret Marble. Before they took her, Margaret spoke to Abbie and said
she thought the Indians might trade her to the whites, and as soon as
she could she would send someone to rescue her and Lydia. They left in a
hurry, before Inkpaduta changed his mind. Two of his warriors
accompanied them to collect the rest of the ransom. They traveled east
to the Big Sioux River, where they came to an Indian camp. A Frenchman
approached them and greeted the brothers. They went to his tent, and his
Indian wife prepared potatoes, pumpkin and hot tea.
'Surely, I thought this a feast fit for the gods!' Margaret said. 'A
great contrast from my former experience with Inkpaduta, where we
subsisted mostly on digging roots, and roasting bones and feathers, to
keep soul and body together.' Inkpaduta's men were paid off and left.
Margaret was taken to Yellow Medicine Reservation, where the parents of
the brothers who rescued her became her caregivers. In a few weeks,
Stephen R. Riggs and Dr. Thomas S. Williamson, missionaries from
Hazelwood, came to claim her. Minnesota (which became a state in 1858)
paid $500 to each of the brothers who rescued her. Major Charles E.
Flandrau, Indian agent for the Upper and Lower Minnesota Sioux, took
Margaret to St. Paul.
About one month after Marble's rescue, Inkpaduta joined forces with a
Yankton band. One of the Yanktons, End of the Snake, hoped to get a
reward by returning the remaining captives, so he purchased them from
Inkpaduta. He continued to work the women as before. A few nights later,
Roaring Cloud burst into End of the Snake's tepee and demanded Lydia
Noble go with him. She was the only captive to be consistently
disobedient to her captors. Lydia refused to leave with Roaring Cloud,
but the enraged warrior forced her out of the tepee. He picked up a
piece of firewood that Lydia had just cut and beat her with it, then
left to wash his bloodstained hands. Abbie was not allowed to go to her.
She heard Lydia moaning for a half hour before she died.
The next morning, the Indians forced Abbie to watch as they abused
Lydia's corpse by using her as a target, scalping her and tying her hair
to the end of a stick. They then broke camp. While they marched, a young
Indian walked next to Abbie, repeatedly whipping her in the face with
the bloody scalp. 'Such was the sympathy a lonely, broken-hearted girl
got at the hands of the `noble red man," she said later.
While Abbie Gardner was wondering if she would ever be rescued, Margaret
Marble was in St. Paul meeting William Granger, whose brother had been
killed on the first day of the massacre. He offered her a home with his
family in Michigan. Three months after Marble moved to Michigan, she
filed for damages with the commissioner of Indian Affairs. According to
the Sioux City Eagle of August 22, 1857, she claimed the Indians
destroyed or stole property worth $2,229, plus $200 for her husband's
preemption rights under the 1834 law. She was finally granted $1,994,
but it did her little good — she gave power of attorney to Granger, and
he collected the claim. When he was asked if he was going to pay her, he
said that he learned from the investigation that Margaret's husband was
alive and had another wife and therefore she was due no payment.
Margaret might never have learned of Granger's duplicity, for she made
no mention of it in a letter she later wrote to Abbie Gardner. She
continued to stay with his family.
Granger later moved them all to Sioux City, Iowa. There, Margaret met
and married a Mr. Oldham, who was working for Granger. Oldham was
suspicious of Granger's story and inquired to the Department of Indian
Affairs about any payoffs made to him. He discovered that Granger had
totally misrepresented the amount the government allowed her. An
official confronted Granger with demands for restitution, but he
disappeared into Dakota Territory.
Little is known about the rest of Margaret's life. Mr. Oldham
disappeared from the scene sometime after 1857. In 1868 Margaret was
living in Napa County, Calif. At some time she married a man named
Silbaugh, for in 1885, she corresponded with Abigail Gardner Sharp and
signed the letter M.A. Silbaugh. She lived in California for 43 years,
dying on October 20, 1911, at age 74. She is buried in the St. Helena
Cemetery.
Abbie Gardner finally was rescued. Inkpaduta and his band moved
northwest to a large village on the James River in present-day Spink
County, S.D. On May 30, 1857, three Wahpetons appeared in the encampment
and began a three-day bargaining session for Abbie. An expensive deal
was struck: For two horses, 12 blankets, two powder kegs, 20 pounds of
tobacco, 32 yards of blue cloth and 37 yards of calico, the captive had
new owners. Mazakutemani (Man Who Shoots Metal As He Walks, or John
Other Day),Hotonwashta (Beautiful Voice) and Chetanmaza (Iron Hawk) were
from Yellow Medicine Reservation and acting under orders of Major
Flandrau, who aided in Margaret Marble's rescue and supplied the goods
for Abbie's purchase. About 10 days' travel in early April brought them
to the Yellow Medicine Agency and to the mission of Dr. Thomas S.
Williamson.
At the agency, Abbie was presented, in the name of Dakota Chief
Matowaken, with a beautiful Indian 'war cap' that had been secretly
transported from the village on the James River.
Each feather represented an enemy that the chief had killed in battle,
and it symbolized Abbie's bravery during her captivity. While she
retained the cap, it was supposed to place her under the protection of
the Dakotas.
Abbie was escorted by a wagon driver, an interpreter and her three
Indian rescuers down the Minnesota River to Fort Ridgely, where Captain
Barnard Elliot Bee Jr. and his wife prepared dinner for them. Mrs. Bee
gave Abbie several gold dollars, and Lieutenant Alexander Murray bought
her a shawl and material for a dress. At the head of navigation at
Traverse, they boarded a steamboat for the trip to St. Paul, where they
docked on June 22, 1857. The following morning, the Indians officially
delivered her to Governor Samuel Medary with much pomp and circumstance.
The people of St. Paul presented her with $500, which she deposited in a
St. Paul bank.
From St. Paul, Abbie, Governor Medary and his entourage took a steamboat
for Dubuque, Iowa, where she debarked and traveled overland to Fort
Dodge. There she waited to be picked up by her newlywed sister Eliza's
husband, William Wilson, of Hampton, Iowa. She reached her sister's home
on July 5. In Hampton, Abbie delivered to Elizabeth Thatcher's parents
the final message Elizabeth had entrusted to Abbie just moments before
her death. Things happened quickly for Abbie, mature beyond her actual
13 years. On August 16, 1857, she married 19-year-old Casville Sharp, a
cousin of Elizabeth Thatcher.
After 1857 Inkpaduta was reportedly seen still lurking about the Spirit
Lake area. His depredations led to the withholding of Dakota annuities
until the guilty parties were turned over to authorities. Scarce
supplies led to unrest among the innocent bands, which contributed to
the start of the Sioux Uprising (also called the Minnesota Uprising) in
August 1862; more than 600 white settlers were killed at New Ulm and
elsewhere in southern Minnesota, and about 300 were captured. Inkpaduta
again was involved in some of the atrocities. Once more, he escaped
punishment and fled. He, according to Lakota holy man Black Elk, was
present at the June 1876 Battle of the Little Bighorn, where he
reportedly led the Santees (another name for the Wahpekute and
Mdewakanton Dakotas) against the 7th Cavalry. In 1877 he took refuge in
Canada with Sitting Bull's band. Inkpaduta never returned to U.S.
territory; he evaded capture and died in 1881 in Manitoba. Today, some
New Western historians and others view Inkpaduta in a kinder, gentler
light. He has been described as 'trustworthy,' 'a very humble man who
tried to avoid trouble,' 'a figure of heroic caliber' and 'one of the
greatest resistance fighters that the Dakota Nation ever produced.' But
Abbie Gardner expressed the views of most Americans who survived those
earlier days. 'By the whites,' she said, 'Inkpaduta will ever be
remembered as a savage monster in human shape, fitted only for the
darkest corner of Hades.' |
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