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Show LAUGHS AT DEATH. How Two Sticks, a Bad Indian, Received a Capital Sentence at Deadwood. When sentence was passed on "Two Sticks, ' ' the courtroom was packed, and when the presiding judge expressed his belief that all four Indian murderers should be hung the people cheered, and the United States marshal was called upon to preserve order. Eed Elk, commonly com-monly known as "Two Sticks" (sinot his orippled condition has compelled bim to walk on crutches), the first of all his race to "feel the heavy hand of the invader, " will be hung Christmas week for the cold blooded murder of a 16-year-old white boy. Throughout the trial Two Sticks has seemed amused at the proceedings and has felt sure of being acquitted. They did not hang Crow Dog, he argued, bo they couldn't hang him. Crow Dog was the first Indian In-dian ever tried in Dakota courts. He was on trial here in 1882 for the murder mur-der of Spotted Tail, a chief of the Sioux tribe, and was found guilty. But the case was appealed to the supreme- court of the United States by Crow Dog'a at torney, known to the Indians as the "little man with the big voice" and now judge of this judicial district, and in tho supreme court the Indian was acquitted. ac-quitted. Two Stiuks is not popular, even among his own people. He is a bad Indian, In-dian, according to their story. He waa wilh Rain In the Face at the Custer massacre; he was at Wounded Knee, where one of his sons waa 'killed with grub in his mouth;" wherever the Indian In-dian wars have been most barbarous and bloody, wherever the innate cruelty and treaohery of the red man have been most manifest, there Two Sticks has been in the midst of them. His hatred of the white man is bitter and intense. Two Sticks received both verdict and sentence with absolute indifference. When asked by the judge whether he had anything to say, he replied, without any show of feeling or interest in the matter: "I am an old man, but have a brave heart, and am not afraid to die. but if I am to die I think it would be proper for me to see my relatives. I am an old man and would rather die right away now, for then I will not suffer suf-fer any more. I do not consider myself doing anything very important toward the whites, but even for that I am to be executed, and I am glad that I am to be executed for cjy people. " Then he laughed as though the whole thing were to him a huge joke. At last accounts ac-counts he vaa singing In the jail. Deadwood Cor. Chicago Tribune. |
