Inkpaduta: Dakota Leader

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This looks promising:

Inkpaduta: Dakota Leader by Paul N. Beck; University of Oklahoma Press, October, 2008.

The publisher says:

Leader of the Santee Sioux, Inkapduta (1815-1879) partcipated in some of the most decisive battles of the northern Great Plains, including Custer's defeat at the Little Bighorn. But the attack in 1857 on forty white settlers known as the Spirit Lake Massacre gave Inkapaduta the reputation of being the most brutal of all the Sioux leaders.

Beck is able to restore a more human dimension to Inkapaduta who was considered a villain whose passion was murdering white settlers.

Bob Reece gives it a very good review on the Friends website:

www.friendslittlebighorn.com/inkpaduta.htm

It's nice to finally have a full-length mainstream biography of this fascinating character, who was involved in so many major events in the history of the West: from the Spirit Lake Massacre, through the Dakota wars of 1862-64, and all the way to the Little Big Horn and beyond. This one moves to the top of my list...as soon as I finish Monnett's new book on Fetterman.

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Be sure to also check out Reece's interview with Dr. Beck:

www.friendslittlebighorn.com/interviewpaulbeck.htm

It includes the welcome news that he is next working on the "Punitive Expeditions of 1863 and 1864" led by Sibley and Sully.

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Cefil writes -
It includes the welcome news that he is next working on the "Punitive Expeditions of 1863 and 1864" led by Sibley and Sully.


That'll be an interesting book. I find myself wanting to learn more about the "obscure" Indian War actions. They set up so much of what occurs later. I really enjoyed John D. McDermott's Circle of Fire - The Indian War of 1865. It clarified a lot about the early Bozeman Trail stuff for me.

My Monnett book is on order, but must have been shipped by pony express.

Ruth

[crzhrs]

I'm sure our Swiss "friend" would have something to say about Inkpaduta's "human dimension"

["Hunk" Papa]

Oct 27, 2008 9:42:47 GMT -6 crzhrs said:

I'm sure our Swiss "friend" would have something to say about Inkpaduta's "human dimension"

Especially as in Donovan's 'A Terrible Glory', he says that Inkpaduta, or Red Top (b.1815), "..died in 1879, the only major Sioux chieftain never to make peace with, never to surrender to, and never to be captured by the United States government."

Perhaps Black Kettle will now have to move over and leave the field clear for Inkpaduta to be regarded as the devil incarnate.

Hunk

[crzhrs]

A little tidbit regarding Inkpaduta I didn't know:

In 1852, when the new chief (Inkpaduta's older brother) and 9 of his family were axed to death by a drunken white whiskey trader, Inkpaduta assumed the role. He informed the U.S. Army of the murder, but to his anger, very little was done to bring the killer, Henry Lott, to justice, and the local prosecuting attorney nailed the dead chief's head to a pole over his house.
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If true, one can see why Inkpaduta was not overly kind to Whites.

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Turns out this is the book I was hoping for: well-written, well-researched, and [mostly] even-handed. Beck does a wonderful job presenting a fascinating character...hero to some, devil to others, but a real person who falls somewhere in between. (Does this sound like anyone else often discussed around here?)

Beck sets the scene for the Spirit Lake Massacre:

Inkpaduta left Smithland an angry man. Cultural and social differences had always divided the Dakotas and whites. Compounding these tensions was Inkpaduta's desire to retain control over the Little Sioux River valley and maintain his independence. Then came the murder of Sintominiduta. Rather than avenge the murder, Inkpaduta had instead turned to the civilian and military authorities for justice - and was let down. Finally, as his people fought to survive the winter of 1856-57, whites stripped them of the only means they had of securing enough food. Heartlessly, Smith made it clear that the whites could care less if Inkpaduta and his band lived or died. This point was driven home to Inkpaduta in a very personal way shortly after he was forced out of Smithland as his grandchild died from exposure and starvation. All of these events pushed Inkpaduta over the edge. He gave in to his anger, an emotion his relatives said could, at times, consume him and make him resort to irrational actions.

Beck describes Inkpaduta's roles in many of the major events on the northern plains. He dismisses the idea that Inkpaduta was in overall military command of the Sioux during the Sibley and Sully campaigns, but he does have him leading his own men in a counterattack to protect retreating villagers at Killdeer Mountain.

Beck also has Inkpaduta's band at the south end of the village at LBH, but with Inkpaduta himself not actively participating in the battle. He leaves open, though, the distinct possibility that Inkpaduta's son, Sounds The Ground As He Walks, may well have killed Custer. At the very least, numerous eyewitnesses have him ending up with Custer's horse.

Oh, I have my quibbles with Beck. He says, at one point, "this view is collaborated by Wooden Leg..." when he clearly should have said corroborated...but that's really more of a nit-pick. As a bit more substantive quibble, Beck does let just a bit of PC-ness enter into his narrative at times. In describing some action during Sully's 1864 campaign, Beck says:

The desire for battle intensified when, on June 28, a cavalry patrol killed three warriors in an ambush. Sully ordered the dead Indians' heads to be cut off and mounted on poles. Shocked by this brutal act, the Sioux prepared for combat. [Emphasis added.]

Compare that to this description of an incident during the Spirit Lake massacre:

When the Dakotas first arrived, they acted friendly, but soon they made demands and insulted Elizabeth Thatcher and Lydia Noble. As matters started to intensify, Alvin Thatcher and Enoch Ryan both tried to resist but were shot dead. The Dakotas ripped Dora Thatcher and Jonathan Noble from their mothers' arms, carried them outside, and then bashed the infants by their heels into an oak tree until they died. Elizabeth and Lydia were taken prisoner.

Shouldn't there be similar adjectives in this account? Wasn't it, too, a brutal act? Weren't the survivors shocked?

All in all, though, a most worthwhile read -- and one that I highly recommend to anyone interested in the history of the northern plains. (And I recommend it even though Beck takes numerous pot shots at Doane Robinson [from South Dakota, OAP], a man whose many hats included the precursor to my own current working chapeau.)

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