. I had lots
of fun out of the experiment, besides getting the magnificent
compensation of twenty dollars a week for my services. I also had the
gratification of knowing that the exciting question of "Who edits the
_Appeal_?" remained unanswered until I answered it myself.

THE INK-PA-DU-TA WAR.

All old settlers will remember what in the history of Minnesota is known
as "The Ink-pa-du-ta War." It occurred in 1857, and, briefly described,
was something like the following: Near the northwest corner of the State
of Iowa, in the county of Dickinson, and near the southwest corner of
the State of Minnesota, in the county of Jackson, there are two large
and very beautiful lakes, called Spirit lake and Lake Okoboji. The
country about these lakes is surpassingly beautiful and fruitful, and
naturally attracted settlers in a very early day. In 1855 and 1857 a few
families settled on a small river which heads in Minnesota and flows
southward into Iowa, called in English Rock river, and in Sioux
In-yan-yan-ke. In 1856 Hon. William Freeborn of Red Wing, Minn., started
a settlement at Spirit lake, and near the same time another location was
made about ten or fifteen miles north of Spirit lake, and called
Springfield.

There was a small band of Indians, numbering ten or fifteen lodges,
under the chieftainship of Ink-pa-du-ta, or the "Scarlet Point," which
had for long years frequented the region of the Vermillion river, and
although Sioux, they had become separated from the bands that made
treaties with the United States in 1851, and were regarded as outlaws
and vagabonds. This band had planted in the neighborhood of Spirit lake
prior to 1857, and ranged the country from there to the Missouri.

Early in March, 1857, these Indians were hunting in the neighborhood of
Rock river settlement, and got into a row with the white people from
some trivial cause, and the treatment they received greatly angered
them. They proceeded north and massacred all the people at the Spirit
lake and Okoboji settlements, except four women, whom they captured and
carried off with them. They then attacked the settlers at Springfield,
and killed most of them. The result of the massacre was forty-two white
people killed and four white women taken as captives.

I was then United States agent for the Sioux, and the news of the
trouble reached me at my agency, on the Minnesota river, early in March,
1857, by two young men, who had escaped, and had trav