| Joseph Amidon came to Sioux Falls with his wife and two grandchildren in the fall of 1858. His son William arrived at or near the same time. They came from the town of St. Paul, Minnesota, which supplied Sioux Falls with many of its residents. Some of Joseph Amidon's Indian troubles erupted soon after he arrived in Sioux Falls. Around 10 P.M. the night after he and his family arrived in the Sioux Falls settlement, the Sioux warrior Inkpaduta and his band stole three horses from the town stable. Inkpaduta 'Red End' was a sworn enemy of the whites and a fierce man who was feared and distrusted by whites and by his own people. It was believed that Inkpaduta's vengeance was due to members of his family being killed by white outlaws. Two of the three horses that were stolen belonged to Joseph Amidon and one to Samuel J. Albright. Amidon and Albright offered a reward of $100.00 for the scalps of the thieves or return of the horses. This reward was published on a press that Samuel Albright had brought to the new settlement. Albright a former newspaperman from St. Paul was the previous editor of a propaganda newspaper called the Dakota Democrat, Sioux Falls city's first newspaper. An eastern newspaper from Boston learned of the reward and issued a response in a serious article. The article called for 'the arrest and punishment of the Christian savages who publicly offered a reward for murder.' Even though it was conceived as barbaric in the east, it was an unwritten law out west that it was a capitol offense for horse stealing no matter who the perpetrator was. Joseph Amidon had become a prominent citizen in the years to come and was appointed Probate Judge and County Treasurer when Minnehaha County was founded in the spring of 1862. His son William elected as a Minnehaha county commissioner. The US government decided to station the detachment of Captain Nelson A. Miner and 25 men from the newly organized Company A, Dakota Cavalry at Sioux Falls on April 30, 1862. Later that spring Lieutenant James M. Bacon had been sent to relieve Captain Miner. More Indian trouble surfaced in the summer of 1862 when a party of Sioux warriors appeared in the hills above Sioux Falls apparently intending to attack the town. Lt. Bacon and a number of troops advanced on them causing the Indians to retreat. A lively chase ensued but the Indians escaped with out incident. On August 25th 1862 Joseph Amidon and his son William were cutting hay for the government on William's claim on the high bluff overlooking Sioux Falls close to where the present day penitentiary is located. A band of Sioux warriors led by 'White Lodge' attacked Joseph and his son. The Judge was shot to death and his son William whom was a hunchback, had apparently been used as target practice by the warrior bows. Lt. Bacon recalled hearing gunfire on the day the Amidons were killed but thought they were fired by some of his men hunting ducks in the slough. B.C. Fowler whose land adjoined Judge Amidon's claim (which lay on the left river bank below the falls) heard firing on the bluff above and a flock of black birds flew over and settled in his fields. He thought that William Amidon was shooting at the blackbirds to scare them from his field. About 10 P.M. that evening Mrs. Amidon came to Lt. Bacon's tent worried about her husband and sons absence. She was afraid they had been captured or killed by Indians. A search was made that night being cautious of an Indian ambush, but they found only the Judge and William's oxen tied in a shed, the wagon and an empty dinner pail. Not daring to make a further search until daylight, they returned to their encampment. The soldiers stood guard all night at the encampment and at the Amidon house. The next morning, north of town next to the crest of the high bluff, George B. Trumbro found the bodies lying in William Amidons's corn field which borders the meadowland they were working in. Judge Amidon was found face down dead with a bullet in the back and William, the hunchback, was found with a dozen arrows in his hump. Evidence showed that William had not died immediately because he had removed some of the arrows before he died. That night the Indians returned and tried to chase away the horses but soldiers thwarted the attempt. Violence erupted in Minnesota by the Minnesota Santee Sioux, which people now refer to as the 'Minnesota Massacre'. The Santee Sioux had murdered white settlers and unsuccessfully laid siege to Fort Ridgely on the Minnesota River, but only after killing 24 soldiers of Captain Marsh's Company close to the lower agency. The Minnesota outbreak started August 17th with the murders of several white people by a marauding band near Acton, Minnesota and by the 18th a massacre was in progress. When people of the Sioux Falls area heard of the massacre on August 28th, an evacuation of the area followed. Civilians hastily packed their belongings, rounded up most of their livestock, and left their houses and hopes for a future in the Dakota Territory, some of them forever. Many of them departed for Yankton and took shelter at Fort Yankton. Lt. Bacons' attachment returned to the Missouri along with the civilians. Others boarded steamers and fled the country, never to return. The September 13 issue if the Sioux City Register published this story of fear struck pioneers running for their lives. "Saturday evening and night and Sunday forenoon, there was a continuous train of wagons from Dakota into Sioux City. In many cases, the women and children where bare headed, barefooted, poorly clad and almost destitute of provisions, showing the extreme hurry in which they left. Many did not stop here but kept on their way south. All had the most alarming stories to relate of Indians which they had seen burning houses, towns destroyed, etc." "Still all the settlers upon the frontier have become intensely excited and alarmed. Nor will they return in very many cases, unless they are assured of their safety from marauding Indians." Most of Dakota had depopulated despite a proclamation on August 30th by Governor Jayne calling for communities to organize their own protective units. The governor soon created a territorial military organization and protective Militias were formed. Indians immediately ascended on Sioux Falls burning and wrecking the town. A mail carrier between Sioux Falls and Yankton was ambushed and robbed and a party of miners descending the Missouri River in open boats were attacked and killed by a band of Sioux near Painted Wood Creek. Their bodies not discovered until winter. |
| The Amidon Affair |