Lot 1020

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Description:

(SPIRIT LAKE MASSACRE)
A.L.S. 2pp. 4to., Homer, Iowa, Apr. 22, 1854 by surveyor J. W Ellis to Warner Lewis. Ellis opens his letter discussing surveying business, then mentions a local murder of Indians: "I presume you have heard before this that [Henry] Lott killed seven of the Sioux Indians and left the country. It has alarmed some of the frontier. settlers. However we do not apprehend any danger from them...". Henry Lott's wife and son had been murdered by marauding Indians and all of his possessions stolen a few years earlier. In retribution, he tricked a Sioux chief and three of his sons into meeting him and, once they were intoxicated, Lott viciously murdered them and fled the region. Soon the Indians whispered that Lott was not only responsible for the death of their chief and his sons but also the pork and whiskey sold them by Lott had something to do with the epidemic which previously had killed some 75 of the braves. This seething anger culminated in the Spirit Lake Massacre in March, 1857 in which the Sioux killed 35-40 settlers and captured Abbie Gardner, who would later publicize the tale of her captivity.

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September 28, 2012 11:00 AM EDT
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