 Inkpaduta and his band were not signatories with the rest of the Wahpekute to the 1851 Treaty of Mendota, which transferred the land in northwestern Iowa to the United States.They refused to recognize the treaty restrictions.In 1852, Henry Lott, a drunken white whiskey trader, killed the new chief (Inkpaduta's older brother) and nine of his family; and Inkpaduta succeeded his brother as chief.