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THE RED MEN OF IOWA.
dition of such disorderly and turbulent characters as from time to time sought refuge among them, after having committed crimes and misdemeanors for which they had incurred the displeasure of their own people. When the whites began to settle on the upper Des Moines, in what is now Webster county, and along the Little Sioux River in Woodbury and Cherokee counties, they numbered about five hundred. Second in authority in the band was a chief named Ink-pa-du-tah, who was a brother of Si-dom-i-na-do-tah. Another prominent chief was Ti-ton-ka, or Big Buffalo. They sometimes had among them a band from the St. Peters River, in Minnesota, with a chief at their head named Ish-ta-ha-bah, or Young Sleepy Eyes. This
chief was connected by marriage with the first two named. Other chiefs, or leaders, were Um-pa-sho-tah, or Smoky Day; Wah-kon-sa, or "One who will be heard from," and Kas-om-i-nee. Under these several chiefs they lived for a time in a state of almost constant warfare with their common enemies, the Pottawattamies in the southwestern, and the Sacs and Foxes in the southern part of the State. A number of sanguinary battles are known to have been fought between bands of these different tribes, on the upper waters of the Des Moines, Skunk, Iowa and Cedar rivers. One of these engagements took place on the borders of what is known as Mud Lake, a few miles southeast of Webster City, where a Musquakie chief named Big Bear was killed. The particulars of several of these encounters in savage warfare have come down to us. John Evans, who was in the employ of a trading firm among the Sacs and Foxes, has related the incidents of a battle which took place on
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SIDOMINADOTAH AND HIS BAND.
Raccoon River, near where the present town of Adel is located, in Dallas county.
About the year 1841 some sixteen hundred Sac and Fox Indians were encamped on the east side of the Des Moines River, a short distance above the mouth of the Raccoon, and within the limits of the present city of Des Moines. It was in August or September the Sacs and Foxes were engaged in a great war-dance, when a warrior of the Delaware tribe came into the camp bringing news of the murder by the Sioux of twenty-three Delawares on Raccoon River. They were on their way from their home west of the Missouri to visit their friends, the Sacs and Foxes, on the Des Moines. The Sioux had followed their trail, and came unexpectedly upon them in the morning just as they were ready to mount their ponies and pursue their journey to the Sac and Fox camp. The Delawares, under their chief, Nes-wa-ge, defended themselves bravely, killing twenty-six Sioux, but losing twenty-three of their own warriors--all, indeed, but one who brought in the sad tidings to the Sacs and Foxes. This battle, or rather massacre, occurred just north of where Adel now stands, at the edge of the timber.
Among the chiefs of the Sacs and Foxes present when the news of this massacre of their friends came in, were Keokuk, Pashepaho and Kishkekosh. The Sacs and Foxes immediately raised the war-whoop, and determined to avenge the massacre of their friends. Pashepaho, then about eighty years of age, was too feeble to mount his pony, but when mounted, was still a good and skillful rider. Under his leadership five or six hundred mounted warriors started on the war-path, armed with bows and
