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Show , v 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 6hould be hung the people cheered, and the United States marshal wa3 called upon to preserve order. Red Elk, com-' monly known as "Two Sticks" (since his . crippled condition has compelled him 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, so they couldn't hang him. Crow Dog was the first Indian In-dian ever tried in Dakota courts. He was on trial here in 1883 for the mur-. der of Spotted Tail, a chief of the Sioux iribe, and was found guilty. But the case was appealed to the supreme court of the United States by Crow Dog's attorney, at-torney, known to the Indians as the "little man with the big voice" and now judge of this judicial district, and in the supreme court the Indian was acquitted. ac-quitted. Two Stioks is not popular, even among his own people. He is a bad Indian, In-dian, according to their story. He was wiih Bain In the Face at the Custer massacre; he was at Wounded Knee, where one of his sons was "killed with grub in his mouth;" wherever the Indian In-dian wars have been most barbarous and bloody, wherever the innate cruelty and treachery 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 rigbfi n-vray ncrw, for then I will not 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 my people. " Then he laughed as though the whole thing were to him a huge joke. At last ao-counts ao-counts he was singing in the jail Deadwood Cor. Chicago Tribune. |