The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1894-07-05
THE MASSACRE! /!
The lnkpadutA Massacre as Re.
membered by an Old
Pioneer.
A Thrilling History of This Sec
tion of Minnesota Made
Public.
Copyrighted All rights reserved by the
Author, Charles E. Flandrau.)

Copyrighted. All rights reserved by the
Author, Charles E. Flandrau.)
The invitation of the publishers of
The GAZETTE to write my reminis-
cences of the early period of that Sec
ton of Minnesota came to hand some
time ago. My knowledge of the
regions early history is from actual
exnerience, and it begins with the
Ink-pa-du-ta massacre of 1857. At
that time the country north of Iowa
andwest of the Mississippi rivers as
far . the Little Rapids on the Mimi
esota river, was occupied by the NJ
de-wa-kan-tons and Wak-pe-ku-te
bands of Sioux Indians. These latter
Indians were at war with the Sacs and
Foxes. The Wak-pe-ku-te band were
under the leadership of two principal
chiefs, named Wam-di-sapa BLACK
Eagle) and Ta-si-gi. The lawless and
predatory habits of Wam-di-sapa and
his band prolonged the war with the
SacsPnd Foxes, and to great extent
cres ID difficulties between the band
of Im-di-sapa and the rest of the
WaKpe-ku-te,which trouble gradually
separated his band from them. Wam-
di-sapa and his people moved to the
west toward the Missouri, and occupied
the lands about the Vermillion river,
and SO thoroughly was he separated
from the rest of the Wam-pe-ku-te,
that when the last named Indians, to-
gether with the M'-de-wa-kan-tons,
made their treaty at Mendoza in 1851,
by which they ceded the lands in Min
nesota owned by them, the remnant
of Wam-di-sapa's people was not re-
garded as being a part of the Wax
pe-ku-te at all, and took no part in
the treaty.
BY 1867 all that remained of Wam-
di-sapa's struggling band, was about
ten or fifteen lodges under the chief
tainship of Ink-pa-du ia or the Scar
let Point, sometimes called Red End.
They had planted in the neighbor-
hood of Spirit Lake prior to 1857, and
ranged the country from the Mime
sofa to the Missouri, and were consid-
cred bad lot of vagabonds.
Between 1856 and 1857 a few set
tiers had located on small stream
which had it's source in Minnesota
west of Spirit Lake, and flows to the
south, which was known at that
time as In-yan-yan-ke or Rock river
This settlement was about forty miles
south of Spirit Lake, in Iowa.
In the spring of 1856 Hon. William
Freeborn, of Red Wing, latter whom
the county of Freeborn, in this State,
is named) projected a settlement at
Spirit Lake, which by the next spring
had attained the number of six or
seven houses, with as many families.
About the same time another set
tlement was started about ten or fif-
teen miles north of Spirit Lake, on
the head waters of the Des Moines,
where a town was laid out and called
Springfield. The principal party in
the Springfield settlement was Mr..
William Wood, of Mankato, who went
there to live, and who opened a trad
ing house. In the spring of 1857
there were two stores and several
families at Springfield.
These settlements were on the ex-
treme frontier, and very much isolated.
There was nothing to the west of
them, and the nearest sediments on
the north and northeast were on the
Minnesota and Watonwan rivers, while
the small settlement on the Rock riv-
or above mentioned, about forty miles
south, was the nearest neighbor in