The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1896-05-30
A FLATHEAD CAPTIVE
kIDANPkD AND TAKEN ON BOARD
A. SAILING VESSEL.
orkcd on Truck Farm in Germany
and Became Tramp in
England.

John Captain, the only Flathead In
dian who ever went to sea and took In
the sights of foreign countries, was q
passenger on yesterday mornings west
bound train says the Butte correspond
ent of the Anaconda Standard. He carried
the remaining sections of a through tick
ct from Washington to Tacoma, and dur
ing the short stop that the train made in
Butte he expressed qualification that the
time was short until he would greet ais
fellow tribesmen on the Puyallup reser-
walton. For more than year JOINS
friends and relatives have thought him
dead They will not be surprised at his
return, however, as they were commune
Gated with before Assistant Indian Com
missioner Smith would believe the story
that John told or would furnish him with
the means of getting back to his people.
John is the captain the chief of the
Duwamlsh or Flathead Indians. He Is
not overwise, and appears TO be about 70
years old. During the past year he has
had an experience that will serve to raise
him to the rank of his father, in spite OF
his lack of wits. He speaks fairly good
English of a remarkable character, as IT
was picked up partly from sailors and
partly from tramps with whom John had
consorted for several months. His story
is verified by the papers he has from var
ious American consuls in foreign coun-
tries and by letters from the Indian de-
partment. He related his adventures to
a reporter.
He was "shanghaied'' or kidnapped. and
taken aboard a sailing vessel bound for
Hamburg in March, 1895. He had been to
a dance near Tacoma and got drunk.
He remembers that. The next thing he
remembers is waking up on board of a
ship almost out of sight of land. He says
he attempted to jump overheard and was
locked up for several days. When he was
given his liberty he was made to do the
scullion work in the cooks galley. And
everybody on board the ship took particu-
lar delight in kicking him whenever OPP
portunity offered. He thinks that the cap
tain of the ship intended to sell him a
| wild Indian, for he was locked up when
Hamburg was reached He managed to
get out of the hold, and jumping over
board, swan ashore.
John secured work on truck farm
near Hamburg for a while, but was
paid no wages, so he applied to the con-
| sui from this country and asked to be senf
home. The consul gave him letters to
| consuls in Great Britain and secured for
him a passage on a ship for Liverpool.
| The consul there would not listen to his
tale of woe and the Indian became an
English tramp, and walked to London.
He made a little money with a hanky-
| panky Snowman, who exhibited him as
a savage from the jungles of America
When he got to London he reached Con-
sui General Collins, and was given pass
age on a ship bound for Mobile. Ala.
On, univ In, NIo1,f1 he l,a1
ey and no idea in which direction he
ought to tramp to get back to the reser-
walton, so he joined a gang of tramps and
spent the winter I'm the south with them.
| Three weeks ago he reached Washington.
He knew he would be all right if he could
get the ear of the great father but he
could get none of the department clerks
to listen to him.
one night about two weeks ago, when
he was nearly starved, he went to a
police station and told his story. The
sergeant in charge was kindly man and
thought there might be something in his
story, so he reported the case to Assistant
Indian Commissioner Smith and the de-
partment took charge of John. His story
was verified and he was given a suit OF
clothes and provided with transportation
home the cost of which will be deducted
from MS yearly allowance JOnn was
rather blue about this, for he knew that
he would have a couple of years of starv-
alton before him when he reached home.
John is a typical coast Indian. and his
head is fattened after the fashion of his
people, who change the shape of the head
of the child by strapping the infant to a
board. And his experience as a tramp
has sharpened his Indian instinct to beg
He was sadly in need of cigarettes and
something to drink, and he was not bash
full about asking for what he wanted.
Beecher's Cats.