Spirit Lake Massacre

The Spirit Lake Massacre (March 8–12, 1857) was an attack by a Wahpekute band of Santee Sioux on scattered Iowa frontier settlements during a severe winter.

Suffering a shortage of food, the renegade chief Inkpaduta (Scarlet Point) led 14 Sioux against the settlements near Okoboji and Spirit lakes in the northwestern territory of Iowa near the Minnesota border, in revenge of the murder of Inkpaduta's brother, Sidominadotah, and Sidominadotah's family by Henry Lott, a drunken white whiskey trader.

Including some women and children, his band followed the game and lived by hunting, whose yield was decreasing under pressure of new settlement.

[2] By the terms of the Traverse des Sioux treaty, a reservation was set up along the Minnesota River, about 15 miles above Fort Ridgely.

The group, including John Howe, Eli Floyd and Jonathan Leach, appropriated guns and told the tribe they would be back in the morning.

[7] The Sioux took four young women as captives, 14-year-old Abbie Gardner and three who were married, and headed back to Minnesota territory.

[8] Word spread about the attacks, and the U.S. Indian Agent organized an armed militia of white citizens.

[9] Abbie states in her memories that Lt. Murray and his men were within eyesight the second day after the Springfield, Minnesota, raid, but were unaware of how close they came to encountering the Sioux.

While settlers demanded vengeance and rumors proliferated, the territorial authorities decided not to act against the Sioux until the captives had been returned.

During the summer, after struggling to marshal troops and attract allied Sioux warriors, the Indian Agency pursued Inkpaduta and his band, but most evaded capture.

[7] The events worsened relations between the Sioux and settlers in the territory, with mistrust and fear higher on both sides.

Because of competition over the lands, white settlers feared that the remaining free Indians would attack them, so they called for their removal by the US government.

The Sioux resented the failure of the government to fulfill treaty obligations; they were starving due to inadequate rations and annuities at the reservations.

The park's visitor center features artifacts relating to the period, and to the cultures of both the Sioux and the European-American settlers.