Save the Date
Thursday, November 5, 2026
Northwestern College, Orange City, IA
Moon of the Snow Blind by Gary Kelley
This graphic nonfiction book dramatizes the 1857 Spirit Lake Massacre, sharing the story of both settler families and the Dakota leader Inkpaduta using black-and-white illustration and historical narrative. Drawing on news stories and survivor accounts, Kelley weaves archival research and memoir fragments with his own artwork to depict this episode of frontier violence. His stark illustrations heighten the tension and moral complexity of the encounter, and he invites readers to reconsider how this familiar tale is told.
Gary Kelley grew up mostly in Algona, Iowa, … a town that historically had its own experience with lnkpaduta’s Dakotas. He earned a degree in art from the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, where he also establish his art studio. His career as a graphic designer rapidly evolved into one of illustration, painting, drawing, and visual storytelling.
Inkpaduta: Dakota Leader by Paul Beck
Leader of the Santee Sioux, Inkpaduta (1815-79) participated in some of the most decisive battles of the northern Great Plains, including Custer’s defeat at the Little Bighorn. But the attack in 1857 on forty white settlers known as the Spirit Lake Massacre gave Inkpaduta the reputation of being the most brutal of all the Sioux leaders. In this book, Paul Beck challenges a century and a half of bias to reassess the life and legacy of this important Dakota leader. In the most complete biography of Inkpaduta ever written, Beck draws on Indian agents’ correspondence, journals, and other sources to paint a broader picture of the whole person, showing him to have been not only a courageous warrior but also a dedicated family man and tribal leader.
After working in the museum field, Dr. Paul Beck turned to education; he’s been teaching history at Wisconsin Lutheran College since 1987. He holds a Ph.D. from Marquette University, and his main areas of interest are military history, the American Civil War, the Wild West, and Native American studies.
The Spirit Lake Massacre and Captivity of Miss Abbie Gardner by Abbie Gardner-Sharp
The Spirit Lake Massacre and Captivity of Miss Abbie Gardner is a firsthand account of the 1857 attack by a band of Dakota on frontier settlements near Spirit Lake, Iowa. Only a teenager at the time, Abbie Gardner was taken captive after her family and many others were killed. Her memoir, published in 1885, recounts her 84 days in captivity, blending personal recollection with the biases of her era. Both a captivity narrative and a key historical document, the book offers insight into settler life, frontier violence, and the shaping of American memory about conflict between Indigenous peoples and new settlers.
Abbie Gardner-Sharp (1843–1921) was a survivor of the 1857 Spirit Lake Massacre. She published her memoir in 1885, almost 30 years after the event, and used public documents and her own notes to reconstruct the story. She later operated a small museum at the massacre site, preserving artifacts and sharing her story with visitors.