[3] Inkpaduta and his band were not signatories with the rest of the Wahpekute to the 1851 Treaty of Mendota, which transferred the land in northwestern Iowa to the United States.
[citation needed] In the late winter of 1857, which was severe, Inkpaduta led his starving band into Iowa, where on March 8, he launched a series of raids on white settlers in the Spirit Lake area in which a total of 38 people were killed.
The following summer in 1858, the US succeeded in negotiating the ransom of the girl Abbie Gardner, who was returned to Spirit Lake.
[6] She later became known for her memoir about the events and her captivity, published in 1888 to great success, with repeated editions and two reprintings by the early twentieth century.
Inkpaduta's band withdrew westward with their Lakota kinsfolk, and the chief migrated with survivors onto the Great Plains.