This page
records part of the history of Iowa when citizens formed militias to
protect them from renegade Indian tribes.
There was a "Border Brigade" of federal
troops that was formed sometime after the Spirit Lake Massacre (March
1857) and 1862 whose purpose was to protect settlers and "chase
Indians". Some soldiers were sent there instead of to the Civil
War.
I believe the official name was the Northern Border
Brigade. I'm not sure if they were stationed out of Ft. Dodge,
IA or at Ft. Defiance in Estherville, IA, or maybe Ft. Belmond in
Jackson, Mn. (which is just a few miles across the border from Spirit
Lake.
Jackson, at that time was called Springfield, Mn, and
there were many Indian problems. Supposedly, all Indians were to have
been removed from the state in 1851, but there were many roving
bands.
I grew up in Emmetsburg, IA (at that time it was
called only "the Irish Colony") which was one of the stopping places of
the soldiers from Ft. Dodge who went up to bury the dead in 1857.
As a child, I heard many tales by the "old
ones". There is a book that you may be able to find on e-bay
or elsewhere called "The Northern Border Brigade". I don't recall
who wrote it. Albert Lea and his Dragoon soldiers did camp at Emmetsburg
at the site of Kearney State Park on one of their exploratory
trips.
Marilyn Mugan Holmes
