Words are Important

How did Blood Run get its Name?

One of the latest Federal fiascos has been an attempt to rename the Gulf of Mexico and Mount Denali by administrative fiat. That attempt has drawn attention to the importance of naming distinctive landmarks. Words are important and naming landmarks is clearly a political football. So where did the name Blood Run come from? Was there a battle near there? Maybe Native Americans fought each other? Or was it all part of the colonizing of the prairie by Euro-Americans?

I recently gave a talk about the Blood Run National Historic Landmark (NHL) and wanted to use Dakota words as a sign of respect for the people who lived there before us. (Technically, the Omaha people are the closest direct descendants of the Oneota cultural tradition.) The Dakota probably came into the area between the time of the abandonment of Blood Run and the arrival of Euro-American settlers.

So anyway, I looked up some words related to archeology in a Dakota dictionary available on line and sent some words to my friend who is a Dakota linguist and keeper of traditional knowledge. His first reaction was: “You’re better off sticking to English.”

Turns out the word that I selected for “mound” actually meant a natural small hill rather than a ceremonial or burial mound built by people. And, my word for “village” applied to a sense of community or belonging rather than an actual physical place with structures.

His final comment was about how the perspectives of a knowledgeable person are much more reliable than simply looking words up in a dictionary.

This friendly exchange and free advice reminded me that I’ve been meaning to do a post about naming things. My friend has helped me to understand translations for Kanaranzi Creek that runs through Lone Tree Farm. Although, the name of Blood Run Creek doesn’t need translation it does come with a lot of political baggage and that’s what we’ll review in this essay. We’ll tackle “Kanaranzi” in the next post.

Figure 1----Map showing the general locations of Blood Run NHL at the red circle and of four streams called “Bloody Run Creek” at the red stars.

Apparently the Blood Run Creek that’s a tributary to the Big Sioux River in the National Historic Landmark (NHL) is the only one in the region. However, an on-line search comes up with a “Bloody Run Creek” in both South Dakota and Nebraska, two in Iowa (Figure 1), and none in Minnesota. We’ll take a little tour around the four streams in the three states to see if the Bloody Run stories provide any insights about the Blood Run at the NHL.

Figure 2----View of flooded tributaries along the Missouri River. A) Large flooded tributary on the east side. B) Small tributary on the west side that’s flooded and filled with sediments and trees.

In South Dakota, Bloody Run Creek (see Figure 1 for the location) is a tributary to the Missouri River in Sully County northwest of Pierre, SD. When the Oahe Reservoir filled behind the downstream dam, Bloody Run Creek was flooded along with all of the extensive former floodplain of the Missouri River. The two photos in Figure 2 are from similar flooded tributaries in another reservoir located farther south along the Missouri. The filling of these reservoirs forced many people and even whole towns to relocate to the surrounding uplands. Those dislocations impacted both Euro-Americans and Native Americans who had to leave their homes on the fertile bottom lands. But this tragedy doesn’t really provide a story about the naming of Bloody Run Creek and I can’t find anything on line.

In Nebraska however, there’s a tall tale associated with the Bloody Run Creek (see Figure 1) that’s located in Sherman County north of Kearney, NE. It’s a tributary to Mud Creek which is in the watershed of the South Loop River. It seems that back in the day, there was party of surveyors who were frightened by a group of Native Americans. The surveyors pretended to be marching in a military formation and the “war party” left. To celebrate this “victory”, the head surveyor “in a spirit of fun” named the creek Bloody Run. No battle; no blood. And probably no interaction between the two groups to clarify if there was truly any real threat.

Figure 3----View of the Mississippi River near Bloody Run Creek.

In extreme eastern Iowa, there’s a Bloody Run Creek (see Figure 1 for the location) that’s a tributary to the Mississippi River. The creek is located in Clayton County north of Dubuque, IA. The photo in Figure 4 was taken in that general area. I’ve been told that the origin of the name Bloody Run Creek goes back to the time of early settlement by Euro-Americans. It seems that one of the soldiers stationed at Prairie du Chien, WI, was an avid hunter who routinely crossed the Mississippi to kill game on the west side of the river. He bragged that he planned to kill everything in one particular tributary and that’s how the creek got its name.

However, there’s a continuing contemporary saga associated with Bloody Run Creek. It’s one of the premier trout streams in Iowa (who even knew that there were trout streams in Iowa!) and the water quality is under threat from a huge “confined animal feeding operation” (CAFO). If you Google “Bloody Run Creek in Iowa” there’s an extensive list of links covering the debate. There’s not really any blood involved in this modern drama (until the cattle reach the slaughter house) and it doesn’t give much insight into the Blood Run name applied to the creek in the NHL on the western side of the state. But again, as in the Nebraska example, there’s no battle and the blood in the name comes from an old story about frontier hunting.

Figure 4---- Settlers’ cabin near Spirit Lake, IA, located about half way between the Bloody Run Creek in Humboldt County and the Blood Run NHL in Lyon County.

However, in central Iowa there is a Bloody Run Creek (see Figure 1 for the location) that does have a story of blood and murder. Actually, it’s a crime that sets off a prolonged series of battles in other parts of the region. So, it could qualify as a possible source for the name of the Blood Run NHL located about 200 miles farther west. The Bloody Run Creek that’s a crime scene is located in Humboldt County north of Fort Dodge, IA, and is a tributary to the Des Moines River. The crime story is told as a part of a 1905 discussion about the causes for the more famous Spirit Lake “Massacre” (Figure 4) that happened in 1857 and is thought of as the precursor to the more extensive Dakota-US War of 1862. That crime on Bloody Run Creek ultimately set off the series of violent events that spread out throughout Iowa, Minnesota, and what would become South and North Dakota. And, this orgy of revenge and reprisal culminated in the hanging of 39 Native Americans that still stands as the largest mass execution in US history.

Back on Bloody Run Creek in 1854, an extended Native American family was murdered by a Euro-American settler. Family survivors attempted to have the murderer brought to justice, but the frontier law enforcement system was largely unresponsive and the perpetrator went free. The brother of one of the victims was a man named Inkpaduta who was subsequently blamed for carrying out the Spirit Lake “Massacre” as a partial retaliation for the miscarriage of justice in the crime on Bloody Run Creek. In the years before the Civil War, Inkpaduta was hunted by Euro-American settlers throughout the area. However, he escaped into the Great Plains and is believed to have later fought in the Battle of the Little Big Horn (AKA “Custer’s Last Stand”). He eventually died in Canada a few years later in the late 1870s (Beck, 2008). The crime at Bloody Run Creek started Inkpaduta’s struggles with the US government and he was branded as a “blood-thirsty savage”. However, Native Americans in his day and also contemporary people believe that he was a patriot who was involved in the resistance to encroachment by the US government.

Figure 5----View of Blood Run Creek last summer.

This modern-day pastoral scene (Figure 5) at Blood Run Creek in Lyon County, IA, is a stark contrast to the battles and vengeance that grew out of the crime on Bloody Run Creek in Humboldt County, IA. In fact, there are no known battles sites in the area around the Blood Run NHL. There was, however, murder committed a couple of miles north at Gitchie Manitou State Preserve in the early 1970s. That was long after the creek was named so it couldn’t be a source. So, why is the creek named Blood Run?

I’ve heard several ideas, but the speculations are hard to verify. One idea is that the red quartzite that’s common along the Big Sioux River is exposed in this tributary creek. But, there are no outcrops in the creek; the nearest outcrops are 2 miles north at Gitchie Manitou. Another suggestion is that iron oxide has provided the red color. I’m not sure exactly how that would be observed in the water or in sediments. I have seen colonies of red-orange fresh-water algae (AKA “moss”) in a tributary to the Mississippi in eastern Minnesota. But, again that’s not something that we see in the Blood Run Creek today. And then, there’s that pervasive notion that there must have been a violent event nearby, even though there’s no record or even a story about a battle.

I do have a theory based on the two Bloody Run names applied to creeks back east in Iowa.

As the so-called “Manifest Destany” ground its way westward across the state, maybe the fear and paranoia came along with it. And maybe the name “Bloody Run” also came with it, but then got modified slightly when applied to the creek in the NHL in northwestern Iowa. Early Euro-American settlers seemed preoccupied by battles, massacres, and murders. Of course, the “yellow journalism” back in the day emphasized those things with the recipe of: “If it bleeds, it leads”. And, that fascination continues into the modern digital media with use of the notorious “click bait”!

So, there’s really no clear explanation for the name Blood Run Creek except for the persistent myth that there was some kind of battle nearby.

In the next post we’ll go back to Lone Tree Farm on Kanaranzi Creek, for a look at the origin of some names in Rock County, MN.

Thanks to Avery Jones for his help with language and landscape. He is a keeper of traditional Dakota knowledge, a linguist and scholar, an artist and writer and a member of Wakpa Ipaksan Dakota Wicoti, Bend in the River Dakota Community (Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe).