Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 1.djvu/430



north of Council Bluffs and disappeared on the great plains.

Several years after his flight, it was learned by a letter from his son to an acquaintance in Boone County, that after settling in California, Henry Lott met his fate at the hands of the “Vigilance Committee” for crime committed in the gold regions. Ink-pa-du-tah brooded sullenly over the cruel murder of his mother and brother, believing that some of the white settlers were parties to the massacre and had aided Lott and his son to escape. The Sioux were greatly incensed upon learning that the head of their murdered chief had been taken to Homer and nailed upon the outside of a house, and they threatened to be revenged upon the whites. These facts were all procured from Major Williams, who had been active in his efforts to bring the murderers to justice, and was familiar with the true history of the massacre. Ink-pa-du-tah never fully renewed his friendship with the whites after this slaughter of his relatives, but looked upon them as treacherous enemies. There can be no doubt that he determined to bide his time for retaliation, which resulted a few years later in the Spirit Lake massacre.

During 1855-6, adventurous pioneers had prospected the valley of the Little Sioux and made claims at various places near the river, built cabins and settled with their families at Correctionville, in Woodbury County, Pilot Rock, in Cherokee, Peterson and Gillett’s Grove, in Clay County.

An Irish colony had settled near Medium Lake, on the west fork of the Des Moines River, in Palo Alto, and a Mr. Granger had built a cabin in Emmet County, near the north line of the State. A small colony had ventured farther up the river and made a settlement in Minnesota, called Springfield (now Jackson). Asa C. and Ambrose A. Call, brothers, had settled near the present town of Algona, on the east fork of the Des Moines River, in 1854.