Show I TRIBE MURDERS INDIAN INmAN LAO lAD TO T LAY CLAY EHL SPIRIT Canadian Royal Mounted Police Bring Out Five Men Who Murdered Boy BOYi Suspected of Witchcraft I WRANGELL Alaska Dec 10 ByA By Byl A A. A P Killing Killing and torturing members members members mem mem- bers of or the tribe having fallen failed to drive dhe away evil spirits that were causing hunger and disease an In Indian Indian In- In dian dlan in the Liard district of ot Canada Canada Can Can- anada an- an ada miles mites east of or here hanged a d dog g daily until he had put to death his whole sled team T This ls was was' one of r the tales that trickled d' d through to Wrangell by bym m means means' ans' ans of gold prospectors after atter a party of or Canadian Ro Royal Mounted police pollee passed through here her recently bound for tor Vancouver B. B C. C with five Indians accused of torturing to death l a lad of 17 The boy Joy was said to have have been burled buried while white he still breathed I 1 Legends that the Indians of the wilds of ot northern British Columbia I and southern Yukon common commonly Iv tortured torI tor tor- and slew fellow tribesmen n for I being friends and companions of ot in injurious injurious in- in jurious spirits have long been common common com com- mon among prospectors Five months ago Frank Bass Dass factor factor fac fac- tor for the Hudsons Hudson's Bay company a at t Fort Liard Yukon territory r reported re reported re- re ported to Canadian authorities that Big Aleck a Cree Cre Indian living on the Mackenzie river had told him that nomad Indians from the Nelson Nelson Nel Nel- son river in British Columbia h had d murdered a boy accused of witch witch- I I cra craft t. t The crime was placed at forty miles south of or Fort Liard Superintendent Knight of ot the Royal police stationed at Vancouver ver sent a patrol to investigate The Liard district was reached after atter traveling hundreds of miles mites on foot toot with pack dogs and navigating the swift lower Liard river by canoe cano Big Aleck when found repudiated the story The party of three po policemen po- po commanded by Inspector pO-I pO I T. T V. V Sandys- Sandys Sandys camped near the suspected Indians I I i Patiently stud studying ing the territory the investigators came ame on a hole Oe In which the they found the h b body dy y or a I boy with his hands tied behind him I I After that confessions from the Indians came easily These were tr to the effect that effect that Edy a squaw had I suspended head downward down down- I ward from a a. sapling to drive aw- aw away evil spirits after Big Aleck Iran had dreamed that the lad was a sor SOl cerer A girl Luc Lucy found hanging there and begged that he be bp cut down down Lucy said that the lad JaIl I was alive when put into the hole Iole but other Indians asserted that heI he was vas killed first by hitting him on I th the head with witha a oft rock The police arrested Edy Tier her three brothers brotherS' Dan Jimmy and Clem and Big Aleck and took hem them to Fort Liard At a hearing there the inspector a magistrate decided that the prisoners should go to Vancouver for trial The three policemen brought the prisoners out to Wrangell traveling 1000 miles on foot and by canoe noe No 1 police had been in the Laird district since 1892 |