Savage Words: His Spirit is Straight

If you’re not into local history, I might lose you here a little bit, but trust me, this one’s intriguing.

My next-door neighbor is Dr. Paul Carpenter, a cardiologist in Sioux Falls. He’s also a descendent of one of the survivors of the Lake Shetek Massacre in southwest Minnesota during the Dakota War of 1862.

That uprising spread as far east to Sioux Falls. The monument on North Cliff Avenue that recognizes the murder of Judge Joseph Amidon and his son was a part of the Shetek Massacre. 

The main mail route between Lake Shetek and Sioux Falls was known as the New Ulm Mail Route. It passed just north of Brandon before taking a direct turn south into Sioux Falls.

Without going into too much detail on the uprising of August, 1862, let me just tell you it was brutal.

Brutal in a way that I didn’t see coming. Paul wrote a book about the events surrounding the massacre, and he asked me to edit the book. I’ve edited books and magazine stories before, and I was happy to do it for my neighbor.

I guess I wasn’t sure what to expect when I began turning in his manuscript. But it didn’t take long for me to have a rotten feeling in the pit of my belly.

What the United States government did to the Native Americans during that time period in terms of not meeting certain obligations of food, money, and promises…is horrific. Just as horrific is the retaliation of the Native Americans towards the settlers who settled around Lake Shetek near Slayton, Minn.

It is barbaric, and it shook me to my core more than once when I read it. Honestly, what some of the settlers went through has stayed with me since the first time I read it.

It’s not a read that’s for the weak of heart, but it’s a fascinating read nonetheless. 

What inspired Dr. Carpenter to write the book was that six-year-old Lillie Everett survived the attack. Lillie is Paul’s first cousin twice removed. Paul’s great-grandfather, Charlie Hatch also survived the attack. Lillie’s mother, Almira Everett, who was Charlie’s sister, was killed in the attack. 

Needless to say, Paul has family lineage to the events of August, 1862.

But his inspiration for the book wasn’t that his cousin survived, it was how that survival came about.

Through his exhaustive, methodical and evidence-based research into the Shetek story, Paul discovered that Lillie was rescued by 11 Native Americans known as Fool Soldiers. 

These 11 Native American men heard of the atrocities of many settlers in Minnesota, and according to research, they knew it wasn’t right. They knew they had to intervene, and they did, saving many settlers from the Native American retaliation that resulted in several deaths at Shetek.

Through his research over the past three decades, Paul discovered what the Fool Soldiers had done for his family. In 1996, he visited descendants of those brave Native Americans, who were living in South Dakota. He was given the Lakota name: WA’NAGiO’OH’TAN’LA (His Spirit is Straight). He was later inducted as an honorary member of the Fool Soldier Society.

It’s been a 30-year discovery for Paul, capped now by a book that he said will hopefully be available by Christmas.

In the meantime, Paul went to Eagle Butte on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation last week with bound copies of one-quarter of the book, specifically the section about the Fool Soldiers.

He said visiting Eagle Butte, and the Fool Soldiers descendants, was another chance to say thank you.

“These people – the Fool Soldiers – rescued my relative. She likely would have died if they hadn’t gotten to her in time,” he said. “So I feel a great debt of gratitude to them for doing this.”

I really wish I could have been with him last week. Talking to him on his way back to Sioux Falls, I could hear the emotion in his voice. 

“It went extremely well,” he said. “They were very appreciative of us coming, and we were the ones who were supposed to be appreciative.”

I’ve always kind of known about the Lake Shetek Massacre of 1862, simply from classes in school and history books. 

I’m grateful Paul has added to those history books in one of the most intriguing page-turners I’ve encountered.