1857-1862.--Spirit Lake.--Massacres by Inkpadoota.--The
Captives.--Delivery of Mrs. Marble and Miss
Gardner.--Excitement.--Inkpadoota's Son Killed.--United States
Soldiers.--Major Sherman.--Indian Councils.--Great Scare.--Going
Away.--Indians Sent After Scarlet End.--Quiet
Restored.--Children at School.--Quarter-Century Meeting.--John
P. Williamson at Red Wood.--Dedication of Chapel.
By the northern line of Iowa, where the head-waters of the Des Moines
come out of Minnesota, is a lake, or group of lakes, called the "Minne
Wakan," _Mysterious Water_, or, as the name goes, Spirit Lake.
Sometime in 1855, this beautiful spot of earth was found and occupied
by seven or eight white families, far in advance of other white
settlements. In the spring of 1857, there were in this neighborhood
and at Springfield, ten or fifteen miles above on the Des Moines, and
in Minnesota, nearly fifty white persons. During the latter part of
that winter the snows in Western Iowa and Minnesota were very deep, so
that traveling on the prairies was attended with great difficulty.
It appears that during the winter a few families of annuity Sioux,
belonging to the somewhat roving band of Leaf Shooters, had, according
to their habit, made a hunting expedition down into Iowa, on the
Little Sioux. _Inkpadoota_, or Scarlet End, and his sons were the
principal men. The deep snows made game scarce and hunting difficult,
so that when, in the month of March, this party of Dakotas came into
the Spirit Lake settlement, they were in a bad humor from hunger, and
attempted at once to levy blackmail upon the inhabitants. Their wishes
not being readily complied with, the Indians proceeded to help
themselves, which at once brought on a conflict with the white people,
and the result was that the Indians massacred almost the entire
settlement, killing about forty persons and taking four women captive.
Some one carried the news to Fort Ridgely, and a company of soldiers
was sent out to that part of the country, but with small prospect of
finding and punishing the Indians. The deep snows prevented rapid
marching, and the party of Scarlet End, who were still in the Spirit
Lake country, managed to see the white soldiers, albeit the soldiers
could not discover them.
Soon after this event, we, at the Yellow Medicine, heard of it by a
courier who came up the Minnesota. It proved to be quite as bad as
represented. But nothing could be done at that season of the year,
either to obtain the captives or punish the perpetrators. So the
spring passed. When the snows had melted away, and the month of May
had come, there came a messenger from Lac-qui-parle to Dr. Williamson
and myself, saying that _Sounding Heavens_ and _Gray Foot_, two sons
of our friend _Spirit Walker_, had brought in one of the captive women
taken by Scarlet End's party, and asking us to come up and get her
that she might be restored to her friends.
We lost no time in going up to Lac-qui-parle. At the trader's
establishment, then in the keeping of _Weeyooha_, the father of
_Nawangmane win_, who was the wife of _Sounding Heavens_, we found
Mrs. Marble, rather a small but good-looking white woman, apparently
not more than twenty-five years old. She was busily engaged with the
aforesaid Mrs. Sounding Heavens, in making a calico dress for herself.
When I spoke to her in English, she was at first quite reserved. I
asked if she wanted to return to her friends. She replied: "I am among
my friends."
She had indeed found friends in the two young men who had purchased
her from her captors. They took her to their mother's tent who had
many years before become a member of the Lac-qui-parle church, and
been baptized with the Christian name of _Rebekah_. They clothed her
up in the best style of Dakota women. They gave her the best they had
to eat. They brought her to their planting-place, and furnished her
with materials with which to dress again like a white woman. It was no
wonder she said, "I am among my friends." But, after talking awhile,
she concluded it would be best for her to find her white friends. She
did not before understand that these Dakota young men had bought her,
and carefully brought her in, with the hope of being properly
rewarded. _They_ were not prepared to keep her as a white woman, and
really, with her six or seven weeks' experience as an Indian, she
would hardly care to choose that kind of life.
Mrs. Marble's husband had been killed with those who were slain at
Spirit Lake. Her story was that four white women were reserved as
captives. They were made to carry burdens and walk through the melting
snow and water. When they came to the Big Sioux, it was very full. The
Indians cut down a tree, and the white women were expected to walk
across on that. One of the woman fell off, and her captor shot her in
the water. Her fellow-captives thought she was better off dead than
alive. When Mrs. Marble was rescued from her captors, two others still
lived, Mrs. Nobles and Miss Abbie Gardner. The Indians were then west
of the Big Sioux, in the valley of the James or Dakota River.
We took Mrs. Marble down, accompanied by _Sounding Heavens_, _Gray
Foot_, and their father, _Wakanmane_. She remained a few days at our
mission home at Hazelwood, and in the meantime Major Flandreau, who
was then Indian agent, paid the young men $500 in gold, and gave them
a promissory note for the like amount. This was a very creditable
reward.
But what was most important to be done, just then, was to rescue the
other two women, if possible. We had Dakota men whom we could trust on
such a mission better than we could trust ourselves. There was Paul
Mazakootamane, the president of the Hazelwood Republic. White people
said he was lazy. There was truth in that. He did not like to work.
But he was a real diplomatist. He could talk well, and he was skilled
in managing Indians. For such a work there was no better man than he.
Then, there was John Otherday, the white man's friend. He could not
talk like Paul; but he had rare executive ability, and he was a
fearless fellow. There was no better second man than he. For the third
man we secured Mr. Grass. These three we selected, and the agent sent
them to treat for Miss Gardner and Mrs. Nobles. They took with them an
extra horse and a lot of goods. In about three weeks they returned,
but only brought Miss Gardner. Mrs. Nobles had been killed before they
reached Scarlet End's camp.
As a consequence of this Spirit Lake trouble, we lived in a state of
excitement all the summer. At one time the report came that
Inkpadoota's sons, one or more of them, had ventured into the Yellow
Medicine settlement. News was at once taken to Agent Flandreau, who
came up with a squad of soldiers from Fort Ridgely, and, with the help
of John Otherday and Enos Good Hail, and others, this son of a
murderer was killed, and his wife taken prisoner. The excitement was
very great, for Scarlet End's family had friends among White Lodge's
people at the Yellow Medicine.
Then came up Maj. T. W. Sherman with his battery. The Spirit Lake
murderers must be punished, but the orders from Washington were that
the annuity Indians must do it. To persuade them to undertake this was
not an easy task. It is very doubtful whether the plan was a wise one.
There were too many Dakotas who sympathized with Inkpadoota. This
appeared in the daring of a young Dakota, who went into Major
Sherman's camp and stabbed a soldier. He was immediately taken up and
placed under guard, but it was a new element in the complication.
Council after council was held. Little Crow, and the chiefs and people
generally of Red Wood, were at the Yellow Medicine. The Indians said
to Superintendent Cullen and Major Sherman, "We want you to punish
Inkpadoota; we can't do it." But they were told that the Great Father
required _them_ to do it, as a condition of receiving their annuities.
In the meantime, several hundred Yanktonais Sioux came over from the
James River, who had complaints of their own against the government.
One day there was a grand council in progress, just outside of Major
Sherman's camp. The Dakota who stabbed the white soldier managed to
get his manacles partly off, and ran for the council. The guard fired,
and wounded him in the feet and ankles, some shots passing into the
council circle. From the Indian side guns were fired, and the white
people fled to the soldiers' camp, the Dakota prisoner being taken
into the keeping of his friends.
For a while it was uncertain whether we were to have war or peace. The
hundreds of Sioux teepees, which covered the prairie between Dr.
Williamson's place and the agency, were suddenly taken down, and the
whole camp was in motion. This looked like war. Dr. Williamson asked
for a guard of soldiers. The request could not be granted. The doctor
and his folks, they said, could come to the soldiers' camp. But in an
hour or two, when the good doctor saw the teepees going up again, a
couple of miles off, he was content to remain without a guard--there
would not be war just then. The Dakota prisoner could have been
reclaimed, but it was thought best to let him go, as the white soldier
was getting well.
That evening, when I returned home from the council, I found Aunt Ruth
Pettijohn and our children in a state of alarm. Mary had gone down
below on a visit. The Sioux camp was all around us, and we were five
miles away from the soldiers' camp. What might take place within a few
days we could not tell. It seemed as if the nervous strain would be
less if they could go away for awhile. And so the next morning we put
our house in the charge of Simon, and we all started down to the Lower
Sioux Agency. We had no settled plan, and when we learned that matters
were being arranged, we were at once ready to return, having met Mary
with a company of friends, who were on their way up to the mission.
Alfred was coming home to spend his vacation, and had brought with him
a college friend; and Mrs. Wilson, a sister of Dr. Williamson, and
her daughter, Sophronia, and Miss Maggie Voris were come to make a
visit.
When we reached home, the Yanktonais had departed, and Little Crow,
with a hundred Dakota braves, was starting out to seek Inkpadoota and
his band. They came upon them by a lake, and the attack was reported
as made in the night, in the reeds and water. Afterward, when in
Washington, Little Crow claimed to have killed a dozen or more, but
the claim was regarded by the Indians as untrue. The campaign being
over, the Indians returned and received their annuities, and thus was
the Spirit Lake affair passed over. There was no sufficient punishment
inflicted. There was no fear of the white soldiers imparted; perhaps
rather a contempt for the power of the government was the result in
the minds of White Lodge and other sympathizers with Inkpadoota. And
even Little Crow and the Lower Sioux were educated thereby for the
outbreak of five years later.
Isabella Burgess had been two years in the Western Female Seminary, at
Oxford, Ohio, and Alfred Longley was completing his academical course
at Knox College. Isabella came to see him graduate, and then together
they started for their Indian home in Minnesota. It was about the
first of July, 1858, and at midnight, when the steamboat on which they
were traveling, having landed at Red Wing and discharged some freight,
and pushed out again into the river, was found to be on fire. The
alarm was given, and the passengers waked up, and the boat immediately
turned again to the landing; but the fire, having caught in some
cotton bales on the front deck, spread so rapidly that it was with
difficulty the passengers made their escape, the greater part of them
only in their night-dress. Their baggage was all lost. But the good
people of Red Wing cared for the sufferers, and started them homeward,
with such clothing as could be furnished. Of the catastrophe we knew
nothing, until I met the children at St. Peter, whither they came by
steamboat. This, and what had gone before, gave us something of a
reputation of being a _fiery_ family, and the impression was increased
somewhat when, nearly two years later, Martha Taylor, in her second
year at Oxford, escaped by night from the burning Seminary building.
After Alfred's return, in the summer of 1858, he spent a year at
Hazelwood, in teaching a government school, and then joined the
Theological Seminary at Chicago. In the summer of 1860, the absent
ones were all at home. During the six years we had been at Hazelwood,
two other children had been given us, Robert Baird and Mary Cornelia
Octavia, which made a very respectable little flock of _eight_.
_Twenty-five_ years had passed since Dr. Williamson came to the
Dakotas. Many changes had taken place. It was fitting that the two
families which remained should, in some proper way, put up a
quarter-century milestone. And so we arranged an out-door gathering,
at which we had food for the body and food for the mind. Among other
papers read at this time was one which I prepared with some care,
giving a short biographical sketch of all the persons who up to that
time had been connected with the Dakota mission; a copy of which was
afterward placed in the library of the Historical Society of
Minnesota.
* * * * *
Ever since the removal of the Lower Indians up to their reservation,
there had been several members of Dr. Williamson's church at Kaposia,
living near the Red Wood Agency. They would form a very good nucleus
of a church, and make a good beginning for a new station. This had
been in our thought for several years, but only when, in 1861, John P.
Williamson finished his theological studies at Lane Seminary, had we
the ability to take possession of that part of the field. While we
waited, Bishop Whipple came up and opened a mission, placing there S.
D. Hinman. Still, it was thought advisable to carry out our original
plan, and, accordingly, young Mr. Williamson took up his abode there,
organized a church of ten or twelve members, and proceeded to erect a
chapel. In the last days of the year 1861, I went down, by invitation,
to assist in the dedication of the new church.
That journey, both going and returning, was my sorest experience of
winter travel, but it helped to start forward this new church
organization, which was commencing very auspiciously. Mr. Williamson
had his arrangements all made to erect a dwelling-house early in the
next season. And when the outbreak took place in August, 1862, as
Providence would have it, he had gone to Ohio, as we all supposed, to
consummate an engagement which he had made while in the seminary.