143:. Promised improvements were not made on time and the federal government repeatedly failed to make adequate and timely annuity payments, even failing to authorize adequate budgets for the Department of Interior for this purpose. Provisions for education were not started for several years; only a few missionaries taught the Sioux bands. Lands were not adequately plowed for cultivation. Supplies were shipped too late and in inadequate amounts, to the point where the Sioux could not survive on them. By 1856, many Mdewakantons and Wahpekutes still came to the reservation just to get annuity payments, and returned to old hunting grounds to survive, especially during the winter. As they encountered more new settlers, conflicts arose. In a reorganization, in the summer of 1856 Charles A. Flandrau was appointed US Indian agent. Said to be an experienced trader and a man of integrity, he worked at improving conditions, but had much ground to make up. Many Sioux in addition to Inkpaduta's band were living off the reservation because of the government's failures.
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by attacking some innocent Sioux who were hunting near settlements. 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. By 1862, seeing thousands of children and elders die from starvation while whites broke the laws by seizing prime Sioux lands, the Sioux rebelled in what historians called the Sioux "Uprising."
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158:. Native people were sometimes beaten and chased for stealing livestock and scavenging grain in harvested fields; thus, weary of the group, who in turn "borrowed" community items freely if they could, a vigilante group from Smithland went out to their encampment. The group, including John Howe, Eli Floyd and Jonathan Leach, appropriated guns and told the tribe they would be back in the morning. The Indians broke camp that night.
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destroyed homes and lives on their journey, they came across Jowl Howe, who was also decapitated. The warriors killed 35-40 settlers, regardless of age or gender. Most of the victims were scalped. The Sioux took four young women as captives, 14-year-old Abbie
Gardner and three who were married, and headed back to Minnesota territory. Word spread about the attacks, and the U.S.
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This was the last attack of Native
Americans against settlers in Iowa. Historians have considered it a foreshadowing of the Sioux uprising in Minnesota in 1862. The events worsened relations between the Sioux and settlers in the territory, with mistrust and fear higher on both sides. Whites reacted
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European Americans' being held by Native Americans. In 1891, Gardner-Sharp purchased the primitive family cabin and returned home. For the last 30 years of her life, she subsisted on the modest earnings from her book and souvenir sales. The town erected a historical monument to commemorate
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After years of marriage and living elsewhere, Gardner-Sharp returned to Spirit Lake in 1891 and bought her former family cabin. She operated it as a tourist site until her death in 1921, and sold her book, postcards and souvenirs there. In 1895 the state erected a memorial monument to the settlers
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Suffering food shortages during the severe winter of 1856–1857, which saw heavy snows, Inkpaduta and his band begged for food at
European-American settlements in northwestern Iowa. Also struggling that winter, whites rebuffed the Indians with violence and a posse disarmed Inkpaduta's band after they
99:, was kept a few months before being ransomed in early summer. It was the last Native American attack on settlers in Iowa, but the events increased tensions between the Sioux and settlers in the Minnesota Territory. Nearly 30 years after the events, in 1885 Abbie Gardner-Sharp published her memoir,
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While settlers demanded vengeance and rumors proliferated, the territorial authorities decided not to act against the Sioux until the captives had been returned. Settlers killed innocent Sioux who were caught hunting near them. When contact was made with
Inkpaduta's group, the officials found that
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Defenseless and hungry, the band moved north. Perhaps the first raid came near Gillet Grove, Iowa. A warrior of the group, who approached the
Gillett cabin, was allegedly shot after repeated visits to the cabin believed to fancy Mrs. Gillett while also looking for food and rifles. As the tribe
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border, in revenge of the murder of
Inkpaduta's brother, Sidominadotah, and Sidominadotah's family by Henry Lott, a drunken white whiskey trader. The Sioux killed 35-40 settlers in their scattered holdings, took four young women captive, and headed north. The youngest captive,
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in
Minnesota pursued Inkpaduta and his band but failed to catch them. 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.
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two of the captive women had been killed. In May the territorial legislature authorized a ransom, and a few days later two
Wahpeton men brought in the third matron, Mrs. Margaret Ann Marble, for ransom. By the summer, Gov.
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195:. 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. The Sioux refused to join another expedition.
128:.) Including some women and children, his band followed the game and lived by hunting, whose yield was decreasing under pressure of new settlement. They also received some annuities under the
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Inkpaduta led a small band of Wahpekutes who had been expelled from the main band in dissension following the murder of a chief in 1840. (Other major bands of Sioux in the region were the
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187:, completed negotiations for the ransom of Abbie Gardner, who was taken by two Sisseton to the Upper Sioux Agency on the Minnesota River. From there she was taken to
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were over, the book was very popular and had several editions; it was reprinted in 1892 and 1910. This was one of the last works in the United States in the
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Nearly 30 years later in 1885, Abbie Gardner-Sharp, by then married, published her short memoir of the 1856 attack and her captivity, entitled
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killed a settler's dog that had bitten one of the band. They managed to acquire arms and retaliated by attacking settlements there and at
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Roger Stoner's "Horse Woman's Child" 2011, depicts historical depictions, information and relative events before and up to the Massacre.
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By the terms of the Traverse des Sioux treaty, a reservation was set up along the Minnesota River, about 15 miles above
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1851 treaties but never received the rightful amount owed by the United States for lands the Sioux were forced to cede.
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on scattered Iowa frontier settlements during a severe winter. Suffering a shortage of food, the renegade chief
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Stephen N. Kallestad and David L. Snook, "The Spirit Lake Massacre: The Northern and Southern Border Brigades"
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Wilson, Angela Cavender, "American Indian History or Non-Indian Perception of American Indian History" in
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Clara Berry Wyker, ANDREWS GENEALOGY AND ALLIANCES: 1857 Spirit Lake Massacre - Dickinson County, Iowa
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292:(1927) was loosely based on these events; in fact, Sitting Bull had nothing to do with the attacks.
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organized an armed militia of white citizens. Because of the heavy snows, a relief expedition from
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relating to the period, and to the cultures of both the Sioux and the European-American settlers.
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254:, where Gardner lived as a girl and which she later ran as a tourist attraction, still stands at
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358:, Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1967, revised edition 1993, accessed 17 Oct 2010
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Vol. 20, No. 1, Special Issue, "Writing About American Indians," (Winter 1996), pp. 3-
258:. The state Conservation Commission purchased the cabin in 1941 and transferred it to the
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youth summer camp, where legends and ghost stories related to the events are recounted.
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the attack. The State of Iowa now maintains the park and Abbie Gardner Sharp home site.
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David L. Bristow, "Inkpaduta's Revenge: The True Story of the Spirit Lake Massacre"
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The area of the Spirit Lake settlement was later redeveloped as Camp Foster, a
440:, Des Moines: Iowa Printing, 1885 (reprinted 1892, 1910), accessed 16 Oct 2010
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What Does Justice Look Like? The Struggle for Liberation in Dakota Homeland'
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which was reprinted seven times in small editions. It was one of the last
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History of the Spirit Lake Massacre and Captivity of Miss Abbie Gardner,
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History of the Spirit Lake Massacre and Captivity of Miss Abbie Gardner
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History of the Spirit Lake Massacre and Captivity of Miss Abbie Gardner
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History of the Spirit Lake Massacre and Captivity of Miss Abbie Gardner
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History of the Spirit Lake Massacre and Captivity of Miss Abbie Gardner
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502:, Site History, State Historical Society of Iowa, accessed 16 Oct 2010
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History of the Santee Sioux: United States Indian Policy on Trial
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490:, full text online at Archive Website, accessed 15 January 2011
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Abbie Gardner Sharp, photographed decades after the massacre
469:"DICKINSON COUNTY: DESCRIPTION, From our Own Correspondent"
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The Spirit Lake Massacre and the Captivity of Abbie Gardner
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In another account, the tribe was camped near current day
78:(Scarlet Point) led 14 Sioux against the settlements near
425:, ABC-CLIO, Inc.: California, 1997, accessed 16 Oct 2010
475:, 4 May 1869, on Genealogy Trails, accessed 16 Oct 2010
519:, St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1976.
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1857 attack by Sioux on settlers in Spirit Lake, Iowa
183:of the Minnesota Territory and the Indian agent at
170:failed to arrive in time. Another expedition from
538:, St. Paul Minnesota, Living Justice Press, 2008.
289:With Sitting Bull at the Spirit Lake Massacre
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66:(March 8–12, 1857) was an attack by a
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564:, History of the Iowa National Guard
422:Encyclopedia of American Indian Wars
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262:in 1974. Under the guidance of
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229:at Arnolds Park near the site.
302:(1961) on the historic events.
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471:, Tour of Iowa Counties,
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369:Santee Sioux', pp. 90-98
457:Encyclopædia Britannica
213:. Perhaps because the
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581:, IowaGreatLakes.com
473:Daily State Register
390:"The Danbury Review"
248:, also known as the
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64:Spirit Lake Massacre
575:, Rootsweb/USGenWeb
404:"Jowl Howe's Story"
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