One of my remote pioneer relatives, and his entire family of seven, and his married daughter, Lydia Noble, were killed horribly in the Spirit Lake Massacre by Inkpaduta and his men (in revenge for a lot of stuff, including Inkpaduta’s father’s murder and head display, to be fair — but the people who did that weren’t the ones who got massacred).
However, in one of those quirks of history, I’m proud to say that my poor relative actually lived a long second life in legend, as a camp ghost story.
Because, darn it, if you get murdered while heading to your neighbor’s for some flour, there should at least be an awesome legend about it.
And there’s a marker for their cabin, as well as the big memorial marker over their common grave in the pioneer cemetery.
Here’s the gruesome details from one of the survivors, Abbie Gardner Sharp. It’s the last great captive narrative in US history, thank goodness.
