Arizona republican., 1892-09-11
THE STORY OF A WOODEN CROSS.

 Brave and Faithful Mehawanta Met His
 Death While Doing His Duty.
 A party of Minnetonka explorers land- ed on Crane island, and in the course of their peregrinations ran on to pecu- liarly shaped mound. The elevation would have attracted no attention prob ably but for moss covered and worm eaten wooden cross that surmonnted it. The cross bore every evidence of great age. It was formed of two rough branches sohdly mortised together. That others had found it was plain from the carvings it bore. There was some specu- lation as to the origin and intent of this rough hewed emblem. Some insisted that it had served pious hermit as an altar before which to repeat his prayers; others claimed to have discovered le- gend inscribed on the time worn stump, and to these the cross denoted a grave probably the last resting place of some early pioneer.
 The truth is even more romantic and interesting. That cross has stood the ravages of time and the vandal hand of the tourist visitor since 1851. It was built by a Frenchman named Edmond Dornier to mark the last resting place of an Indian. The Indian had rendered Dornier great service. He was shot to death by the Frenchman while in the very act of serving him. It was a mis- take, and one which Dornier regretted to the day when he himself died a vio- lent death in the Indian war of 1861. Dornier lived on the lake shore. He was one of the first settlers. The log house he built has long since been replaced by a pretentious house, now occupied by a Minneapolis man as his summer resi- dence, Dornier had wife and two daughters. The latter were skillful in navigation of the bark canoes made by the tribe of Sioux-then resident in that region.
 One of the oldest and wisest of the Sioux tribe was Mehawanta, friend of the whites and conservative adviser of his tribe. One day Dornier's oldest daughter, then handsome girl of nine teen, was fishing in a canoe off Crane island, when the crazy craft capsized as the result of her attempt to land large fish. The girls clothing had become caught in the little canoe, and although an expert swimmer she was drowning rapidly. It was then that with tremen- dous strides old Mehawanta came crash. ing through the underbrush. The old Indian could swim like duck, and in a trice he had rescued the French girl from her dangerous position. There she lay on the grassy bank insensible. The Indian was not used to formality. Sans ceremony he tore open the bodice of his charge.
 Then he proceeded to apply all the remedies nature had taught him. Thus he was employed when from the tim bered hillside rang out the sharp crack of a rife. Mehawanta started, stood bolt upright, and then fell slowly for ward across the prostrate form of the girl he had rescued-stone dead. A moment later Dornier appeared. A rife still smoked in his hand. He kicked :he dead body of the old chief aside, and by hard work brought his daughter back to life. Her first inquiry was for Meha- wanta. The face of the Frenchman darkened as he pointed sternly at the silent corpse. The terrible truth then burst upon her. Her preserver had been slain by the very hand that should have clasped his in warmest friendship.
 For years until the Indian wars broke out this girl visited the old chiefs grave and placed choicest wild flowers upon it. It was the most she could do. Dornier was frantic when he discovered his mis- take. He built the crude cross and buried the dead chief with his own hands, Every prayer the holy fathers had taught him in his native Quebec was said over the old hero's grave, but the reproach would not die. It haunted the French man to his dying day.
 Thus is told the story of the cross of Crane island by one who has heard it from Dornier's own lips.-Minneapolis Journal.