Inkpaduta
Inkpaduta - Dakota: Iŋkpáduta - meant "Red End", “Red Cap", or “Scarlet Point”. He was the Indian Chief responsible for the massacre of Spirit Lake in Iowa where 38 settlers were killed in 1857.
Who was this guy hated by Native Americans and white settlers alike?
The book The Spirit Lake Massacre, written by historian Thomas Teakle and published in 1918, even if limited by a few Native American inputs about the tragic event - there are some testimonies - , shares the following information about the chief of the Indian raid.
(Note: The book quotes are edited to make them easy to digest and cut some biased opinions from the author leaving mostly the data about Inkpaduta and his band.)
Inkpaduta, the leader of the band, was a Wahpekuta Sioux [...] his own tribesmen [...] feared or hated him.
...a serious quarrel arose among the Wahpekutas. [...] When the consolidation of the leadership did not progress as rapidly as Inkpaduta wished, it is said that he hastened the event by securing the murder of Tasagi. This occurred probably in 1839.
The Inkpaduta band of Indians had become well-known either by the name of its leader or as the "Red Top" band, from the fact that it frequently carried pennons of red cloth attached to lance ends.
...draw to him the worst types from the surrounding tribes. [...] Many of the unpleasant incidents in frontier life from 1836 to 1857 in Minnesota and Iowa were directly chargeable to these Bedouins of the prairies...
The first exploit officially credited to the band was the massacre of Wamundiyakapi, a Wahpekuta chief, along with seventeen warriors on the headwaters of the Des Moines in Murray County, Minnesota, in 1849.
Inkpaduta, in 1856, was evidently between fifty and sixty years of age. He was born, probably in 1800, on the Watonwan River in Minnesota.
For a Wahpekuta Sioux he was large, being probably more than six feet tall and very strongly built. He was not a person of pleasing appearance; [...] smallpox had badly marked him.
Inkpaduta stood out above his followers on account of his hatred for the whites, his revengeful disposition, and his nearly matchless success in war.
His unusual disposition was coupled with an ambition to see his people and tribe restored once again to their wide and extensive hunting ranges. As he witnessed the frontier expanding westward he saw his great ambition vanish, and he was irritated beyond control.
Burning with hatred for Indians and white men alike, Inkpaduta and his band left the Fort Ridgely Agency of the Lower Sioux in the autumn of 1856.
...in February, 1857, [...] Verging upon starvation, they hastened on foot or on horseback toward the white settlements along the Iowa frontier; [...] the band was not large [...] Apparently there were only about ten lodges in all, comprising men, women, and children.
As an explanation of what occurred in Iowa in the spring of 1857, there has been advanced the theory that Inkpaduta was merely seeking revenge for the murder of his brother, Sidominadota.
Some pointed to the killing of Inkpaduta's brother and relatives by a whisky trader called Henry Lott in 1852 as the thing that opened his thirst for revenge. This info came mostly from Iowa frontier militia leader Major William Williams, but known events point that his violent career began a lot earlier.
All human groups and cultures have terrible men. No exceptions throughout history. If in doubt, take a deep look around you.
Check a photo of Inkpaduta in the website of the National Park Service.