Seven dailies were started during the Territorial period. These were the St. Paul Pioneer, St. Paul Minnesotian, St. Paul Times, St. Paul Free Press, Minnesota Democrat, afterward consolidated with the Pioneer under the name of Pioneer and Democrat, the Falls Evening News, and the Hastings Ledger. The Pioneer is the only daily of that period now alive.

Nine dailies were begun later, in the years 1858 to 1865. They were the Winona Review, the Minnesotian and Times of St. Paul, Winona Republican, Star of the North of St. Paul, the State Atlas of Minneapolis, St. Paul Press, Winona State, St. Paul Union, and St. Paul Evening Democrat. Of these dailies, only the Winona Republican, now the Republican-Herald of Winona, survives.

Of the one hundred and seventy three journals, other than dailies, started in Minnesota before January 1st, 1866, the twelve named in detail in the paper preceding this, and the New Ulm Post, St. Cloud Times, Red Wing Argus, and Anoka Union, making a total of sixteen, are now alive; and the first newspaper, the Pioneer, was begun April 28th, 1849. Ninety per cent of newspaper mortality in fifty-eight years gives a long mortuary list, but all honor to the dead, for every one helped to place Minnesota in the proud position she now occupies.

CAUSES AND RESULTS OF THE INKPADUTA

MASSACRE.*

BY THOMAS HUGHES.

The paper here presented is derived from numerous accounts in the state and county histories of Minnesota and Iowa, and from narratives and information given by persons who were witnesses of parts of this history, some of whom are still living. A former paper on this subject, read by Hon. Charles E. Flandrau before this Society in 1879, was published in its third volume of Historical Collections (pages 386-407), which the present writer has endeavored to supplement by relating especially the events that preceded and followed the massacre.

Among the sources most consulted is the History of Iowa, in four volumes, by Hon. Benjamin F. Gue, published in 1903. Four chapters in its first volume portray these thrilling scenes of about half a century ago.

SINTOMNIDUTA KILLED BY HENRY LOTT.

The Indians who claimed the site of the present city of Faribault as their principal ancient camping ground and who hunted along the Cannon and Straight rivers, and thence to the headwaters of the Blue Earth and the Iowa line, were known as the Wahpekuta band of Dakotas.

A chronic warfare had existed from time immemorial between all the Dakota or Sioux tribes and the Ojibways on the north and the Sacs and Foxes on the south.

About 1840 the Wahpekutas were suffering severely because of the unusual bitterness of this war, which they attributed to the bloody propensity of one of their own sub-chiefs, named Wamdisapa (Black Eagle), whose vicious activity on the warpath provoked constant retaliation from the enemy.

*Read at the monthly meeting of the Executive Council, October 9, 1905.

One day Tasagi (His Cane), head chief of the band, attempted to remonstrate with Black Eagle for his over-warlike disposition, which kept the enemy ever stirring like a nest of hornets; but the savage warrior would brook no reproof even from his head chief, and in the quarrel that ensued Tasagi was slain. Fearing the vengeance of the tribe, Black Eagle with a few partisans, mostly relatives, fled to the Vermilion river in South Dakota. There the outlaw chief met his death in two or three years and was succeeded by Sintomniduta (Red all Over), also known as Napenomnana (Two Fingers), from the fact that one hand had only two fingers as the result of the accidental discharge of a gun. He was a large, powerful Indian, fully as aggressive and warlike in disposition as his predecessor,— well fitted to lead a gang of savage freebooters.

In 1842 the government removed the Sacs and Foxes from northern Iowa, and soon thereafter Sintomniduta removed with his band into their vacated hunting grounds, fixing his principal camping place about where Fort Dodge now stands.

The lawless character of this band attracted to it desperadoes and fugitives from justice from other bands, until it became notorious even among the Indians for its wild and desperate character. It was called the "Red Top" band, perhaps from the habit of carrying streamers of scarlet cloth tied to the points of their long lances. Besides these spears, they were armed with smooth-bored guns, bought from French traders, and each carried bows and arrows, a big tomahawk, and a scalping knife.

Sintomniduta was married to a sister of the noted Sisseton chief Ish-tah Kha-ba (Sleepy Eye), who, with a portion of his followers known as the Little Rock band, often hunted in the territory along the upper Des Moines.

In 1845 there lived at Red Rock in Marion county, Iowa, a somewhat notorious western character named Henry Lott. He was a small, spare. dark complexioned man, who claimed to be of New England origin, and his wife was reputed to be the daughter of one of the early governors of Ohio or Pennsylvania. But the family had greatly degenerated from its noble origin, and the freedom of pioneer life was used by it as an occasion for lawless deeds.

Lott dealt in horses, but his method of acquiring them was very suspicions. He also pretended to be an Indian trader; but the

principal commodity received by the red man in exchange for his furs was the poorest grade of whiskey.

In 1846 Mr. Lott left Red Rock at the request of his neighbors, and after a short sojourn at Pea's Point, he located upon the Des Moines at the mouth of Boone river. Here he came into contact with Sintomniduta and his wild followers, and in December, 1848, they became involved in a serious quarrel, which finally led to dire consequences to the red and white inhabitants of both northern Iowa and southern Minnesota.

As to the particulars of this quarrel, the accounts do not agree. Some say that the Indians traced five ponies, which they had missed, to Lott's stable, that the chief gave him five days to quit his dominions, and that, on his failing to comply with this order, Sintomniduta and his band decked their war paint and forcibly drove Lott and a grown-up stepson from their home. As the two in their flight glanced back from the bluffs of the Boone, they imagined that they saw the cabin in flames and heard the dying shrieks of Mrs. Lott and the younger children, who had been left in it. Lott and his stepson fled down the Des Moines about one hundred miles to the nearest white settlement, at Pea's Point.

Here John Pea undertook to raise a company to go back with Lott to look for his family and punish the Indians. At Elk Rapids, chief Chemeuse (called "Johnny Green") of the Pottawattamie and Musquakie tribes volunteered to join the expedition with twentysix braves, glad of an opportunity to go on the warpath once more against their old enemy, the Sioux.

With this force of Indians and six white recruits under John Pea, Lott hurried back, but on arriving at his cabin found it standing and his wife and children safe, except his son, Milton, a lad of twelve years, who, his mother said, had left the cabin for fear of the Indians shortly after his father, and had not been seen since. A search disclosed the fact that Milton had followed the tracks of his father and brother down the Des Moines, probably only a few hours behind them, though they knew it not, until, exhausted by cold and hunger, he fell in the snow and perished within three miles of where stands the present town of Boonesboro. A few months later the mother, who had been overcome by terror and grief, sickened and died, and Lott laid both deaths to his account. against Sintomniduta.

The old chief and his band easily eluded the war party Lott had brought with him to punish them, until, running out of provisions, they soon returned to their homes disappointed.

Fort Dodge was abandoned by the war department in 1853, and the soldiers were all transferred to the new military post on the Minnesota, called Fort Ridgely. Captain Woods, with most of his command, left for the new post on April 18th, 1853, and Lieutenant Corley followed on the 2nd of June with the remainder. Thus the Upper Des Moines country was left without protection.

In November of this same year (though some claim, perhaps more correctly, that it was 1852), Henry Lott, whom we had left near the mouth of Boone river, removed with his stepson up on the east branch of the Des Moines, and built a cabin and cleared a small piece of land on the east bank of this stream, nearly opposite the mouth of Lott's creek, in section 16 of Humboldt township. He took with him a few trinkets and two or three barrels of whiskey, and, as was his wont, engaged in the Indian trade.

In the winter of 1853-4 Sintomniduta was encamped two or three miles south of Lott's cabin, on the right bank of Bloody Run in section 4 of the township of Grove. For some reason the chief and his family, consisting of two squaws (one of whom, as some say, was his aged mother) and five or six children, were left alone for a period of time during January, 1854. When Lott discovered this, he concluded that his long sought opportunity to glut his vengeance for the death of his wife and son had come. Apparently that occurrence had long been forgotten and he and the chief had been on the best of terms, but in fact Henry Lott was as bitter as ever down in his heart.

Having drawn his plot and gotten everything in readiness, Lott and his stepson rede down to Sintomniduta's camp, one afternoon, and reported that they had just discovered a herd of elk, a mile or so up the creek, at what is known as the Big Bend, and invited the chief to help hunt them. The prospect of a lot of fresh elk meat delighted the heart of Two Fingers and his family, and he readily accepted the invitation. Before starting, Lott treated the chief liberally with whiskey, of which he was very fond, and then the three rode off to the hunt. When the appointed place was reached, and the chief, because of the liquor and his eager search