M'arthur Democrat. (McArthur, Vinton County, Ohio) 1853-1865, 1857-05-14

A Truthful Account of the Indi'
an Difficulties at the North
West.
The following, which we cut from
q Minnesota paper, gives q truthful
and reliable account OF the Indian
murders which have lately been com.
mitted in Northern Iowa. The cor.
respondent says:
TRAVERSE DIES Sioux,
April %, 1857. !
FRIEND NEwsoN: | write to tell
Won something of the Sioux who have
committed the recent murders on the
white settlers near Spirit Lake. The
whole number of men and boys able
to carry Il gun, belonging to this party,
is seventeen, which is the number re-
ported to have been engaged in the
first murders. A Sioux, now in the
noighborhood of the Agency, called
Smoky Day, and two brothers, Jo-
seph and Louis CoursoiX, half breeds,
who saw and conversed with them in
the neighborhood where they killed
two brothers named Wood, who were
trading not far from the head
of the Desmoines River, say there
we're only twelve men, and a boy
aged probably about fifteen years,
from which it seems probable that
four or five of the original party had
left, not liking the business in which
they were engaged. Ink-pa-duta and
his people are Wah-peh-kutas, and
spoken of by the leading men near
Pu,ja-ta.zee and the Sioux Agency as
renegades, who, in consequence of
murders committed on their own peo-
pie many years ago, had to flee from
Cameron River to the Missouri,
Whether they were present at the
treaty at Mendoza in 1851, | have not
learned; but they suppose, not with
out reason, their claims to lands &C.
ded in that treaty as good as that Of
any of those who signed it.
A part, if not all of them, were
present at the time of the payment
last summer or fall, and, it is said,
expressed much dissatisfaction because
they were not allowed to share in the
annuities. The agent refused to give
them a share, because they had not
planted on the Reserve. They have
told some Of those who have convers-
ed with them that as they were pass
ing n house not far from the Little
Sioux River, in Iowa, a dog came ont
and bit one ofthem, who then shot
the dog. Soon after this q company
Of white men came upon them, and
took from them all their guns, and
beat them with sticks or whips. and
so drove them off. Having no means
OF obtaining q subsistence without
guns, after suffering some time, they
determined to supply themselves by
taking guns wherever they could find
them. After they had obtained a
partial supply, o man from whose
house they had taken a gun, came out
and shot at them, without, however,
hurting them. They shot him down,
and from that time proceeded to muir.
der such families as they met with
The report among the Dakotas at Pc.
iutazee, more than a week ago, was
that they had killed between thirty
and forty white persons, and had q.
nlong them four female prisoners
three women and a girl. Some ofthe
military men who have been in the
regions where the murders were COM
mitted, and returned to Fort Ridge.
ley, say that f0rty-Sir dead bodies
haze been found, and that as many as
fifty may hare been kiLLed.
Soon after the news OF the first muir.
ders reached Pajutazee, an intclli-
gent gentleman ofthat neighborhood,
with whom l was conversing, told
me hal Ink.pa-duta and his party,
having supplied themselves with hor,
ses, ammunition, &C., would go up
the Big Sioux River, to near the head
oft, and then up the James OF. JAG
quese River to join themselves to the
northern Shank-ton-wan; and this is
highly probable, as when las ard
from, about the 18th inst, they were
not far from the Red Pipestone quar-.
ry. 1t is not probable that they will
again approach the white settlements
for some months, as plumber seems to
have been a principal object in what
they have done,an they are said to be
abundantly supplied.
The Sioux who receive annuities
are more disposed to take part with
the whites than with these renagades
of their own people; and say they
would not feel at all aggrieved if the
Americans should kill Ink-pa-duta
and his whole party. Those of us who
have our families among the Indians
do not apprehend danger from them,