- Chief Black Hawk (1767-1838)
- Influence of European Culture
- Conflict Between Cultures
- European Explorers Meet Early Iowans
- Spanish Meet Indians
- Land Ownership
- Indian Agents
- Sac and Mesquakie Move to Iowa
- Only Sioux Remained in Iowa
- Massacre at Spirit Lake
- Mesquakies Return to Iowa
- Mesquakie Maintain Culture
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Massacre at Spirit Lake
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In 1854 a trader by the name of Henry Lott had killed a Sioux by the name of Sintomnaduta and his family. Lott’s motive for the killing is not clear, but it did give the dead Indian’s brother, Inkpaduta, a reason to seek revenge against the white people. It was in the winter of 1857 that the conflict that had been simmering between settlers and Inkpaduta’s band of Sioux erupted into the famous massacre at Spirit Lake. Egged on revenge for insults they had received from settlers as well as poverty and hunger, Inkpaduta and his men went from cabin to cabin and murder 34 settlers at Spirit Lake. Four women were taken prisoners and two of them were later killed. It was the worst mass murder of innocent people by Indians in Iowa history. The Spirit Lake massacre cause panic on the Northwestern frontier and settlers feared further bloody raids by the Sioux.
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