Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1881-11-29

Sitting Bulls SOn-in-Law Takes
Poison i'm the YanktOn Jail.


Yankton Pres and Dakotaian, Nov. III
There was a startling sensation at
the Yankton county Jail last evening
About half past seven o'clock Know
ton, one OF the prisoners, was alarmed
by the most dismal and heart rcnding
groans proceeding from the cell in
which Brave Bear was confined, and
upon entering found the Indian suffer
ing from the most violent commissions.
The taller Immediately dispatched a
messenger for DR.. Miller, who quickly
responded, and after a very brief
examination found that Brave Bear
had been poisoned. DR.. Miller called
in DR.. Etter, and the customary anti
dotes were administered with good
effect, and when the physicians left
the jail last night they had hopes that
their patient would recover. Deputy
Marshall Gray remained at the Jail
until ten o'clock this morning, at which
hour there seemed every probability
that Brave Bear would SURVIVE. The
favorable symptoms, however, gave
way to serious complications about
eight this morning, and since then he
has been suffering intense pain, and
the physicians are apprehensive OF
fatal results, as the great suffering in
dicates the effect Of some irritsnt
poison, probably O mixture of strych.
nine and arsenic.
Brave Bear is a son in.law Of Sit
ting Bull and is known as an old Of
fender. He isaveryshrewd intelligent
Indian, and has made up his mind that
he will die before another moon rises.
He, in connection with Rain-in the
Face, we're charged with the murder
ola family named belong, near st.
| Joe, in Pembiua county, in 1876.
Brave Bear was tried for this crime at
Fargo in 1879. The evidence was
overwhelmingly against him, but the
question Of jurisdiction being raised,
the court held that as Pembina coun-
ty wal organized the prisoner should
be tried by the district court Of that
county. The culprit was &C
c~ordingly handed over to the Penn
bina county authorities and con-
fined in the Jail from which he sub
sequently escaped, and with his squaw
made his way to Fort Sully in 1873,
where he committed the murder Of
Joseph johnson, and then fed North
and Joined Sitting Bull. He surren-
dered with the other hostiles last
spring, and a few months ago was
again arrested near Fort Sully fol
Johnson's murder, taken to Bismarck
and examined before the United
States Commissioner, who held hin
for trial at the November term of the
United States Court to be held il
Yankton this month. Deputy Marsha
Gray escorted the prisoner from
Bismarck to YaDkton. At Fargo he
thoroughly searched him, and is salts
fed that be had no poison on his per
son at that time. At st. Paul Brave
Bear was placed in Jail a few hours for
security, and he has confessed to
Marshal Gray that a white prisoner in
the Jail gave him two powders and
told him TO take one whenever he felt
bad. Brave Bear felt badly shortly
after supper last evening. and placing
one Of the powders in a small piece Of
bread that he had taken with him ia
his cell, he swallowed it.
Spiritual consolation has been ad.
ministcred to the dying man Il .day by
the Catholic priest. Gray has a docu-
ment which Brave Bear gave him last
night, which, if it can be deciphered,
may prove to be a confession. 1t con
sists Of a number Of animals, rudelJ
sketched and colored, and underneath
quite a lengthy statement in writing.
Whether the writing is ineligible
remains to be investigated. Brave
Bear denounces Sitting Bull in the
most emphatic and vulgar terms, not.
withstandiog his relationship. III
has expressed a wish that in case he
dies to have his body placed in a boz
and sent to his father at Standing
Rock.
The danger OF immoderate gmokinl