Slaughter Slough is a wetland in southwestern Minnesota, named for being the site of the Lake Shetek Massacre during the Dakota War of 1862.

Fish and Wildlife Service as Slaughter Slough Waterfowl Production Area, a component of the Windom Wetland Management District.

[4] Listed roughly north to south they were the Meyers, the Hurds, the Kochs, the Irelands, the Eastlicks, the Duleys, the Smiths, the Wrights, and the Everetts.

[5] The growing Euro-American population, however, was making it increasingly difficult for the easternmost Dakota people to pursue their traditional lifestyle.

Resettlement on reservations, treaty violations by the United States, and late or unfair annuity payments by Indian agents caused increasing hunger and hardship among the Dakota.

[2] Pushed to the breaking point, a council of Dakota leaders decided to wage war on the whites on August 17, 1862.

The declaration of war reached White Lodge and Lean Grizzly Bear, the chiefs of two bands living northwest of Lake Shetek.

[4] A third Sisseton band, headed by Old Pawn, was camped near the Wrights' cabin at the south end of the Lake Shetek settlement.

At the first farm they simply trampled through the cornfield and vandalized a fence, leaving the Meyers family perplexed but unharmed.

[3] Refusing them to take provisions, some attackers escorted the Hurds 3 miles (4.8 km) from home and pointed them in the direction of New Ulm.

[5] Conversely both Andrew Meyers and Alomina Hurd had been friendly with the Native Americans and spoke their language, which she credited for her and her children being spared.

The settlers decided to gather at the most defensible structure, the two-story Wright house built on higher ground.

[4] As the settlers gathered at the Wright home they encountered Old Pawn and members of his band, who were camped nearby and well-known to the whites.

Henry Smith and Mr. Rhodes panicked and ran, though William Duley shouted at them to stay or at least leave their guns.

[4] Duley suggested the party take cover in a nearby slough, reed-filled and mostly dry in late summer.

One hundred miles north of Fort Pierre a fur trader ran into them and offered to trade goods for the captives.