The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-12-11

and children; they practice their heath
enish religious rites, their medicine and
witch dances; they believe in and prac-
ties a very rude method of cremating
the dead, and worst of all, they be-
.ieve in witchcraft. Every natural death
in the tribe is accredited to witchcraft,
and for every "bewitched' Indian that
dies some poor Indian boy is barbar-
ously murdered. To their open-air life
and the healthful climate of the Cas-
sior district is due the low death rate
of the tribe and the correspondingly
low murder rate.
A WOLF EXERCISES A WITCH.
In the winter of 1896 an Indian wo-
man lay near unto death in her home
al Tahltan village. and the wise men
of the tribe decided that she had been
bewitched. She belonged to the faction
of the Tahitans known as the wolves,
so a Wolf witch doctor was called
upon to drive out the witch that had
crept into the mortal body of the
KlOochman. The doctor came dressed
in Wolfs1ins and made up to resemble
as nearly as possible a. wolf. and for
two hours he danced about the couch
of the dying woman. uttering horrible
cries and making threatening gestures
calculated TO drive the witch out of the
woman. The witch did not appear and
as the woman was apparently worse
than before the medicine mans per
Torrance, it, Of course, became imme-
diately apparent to the Indian mind
that the dying woman was possessed.
The responsibility must be fixed, so
with a howl and leap, the Wolf
doctor seized upon the 12-year-old son
Of a widow Of the tribe and dragged
him TO the couch of the dying woman,
who admitted then that she was be-
witched; that the boy was responsible
for the bewitchment-and thus she
died.
BE mother wept and pleaded for the
81 life. The lad declared that he
would not known how TO go to work to
beNitch any one but what could the
mother and child 90 against the death
bee. confession and accusation Of the
bewitched KIoochman? The deceased
should certainly know whether she was
bewitched or not, and to whom the re-
sponsibility belonged. From such a
court there was no appeal
TIED UP BY THE THUMBS"
A brave Of the tribe (his name was
Desculta} here took charge of the pro-
ceedings. The boy was tied up by the
thumbs and beaten with switches as
punishment for the witches. A big
hunt was organized and set for a date
two months ahead, and while waiting
for Inc final act in the tragedy the boy
was frequently tied up and whipped,
to bring him to a realizing sense Of his
condition.
The mother of the doomed lad doubt
ed the wisdom of the elders of the tribe
and the justice Of her boys sentence so
she jOurneyed to Telegraph Creek and
laid the matter before John Highland
a white merchant, who is still in bust
ness there. Mr.. Highland Immediately
communicated with superintendent of
Indian Affairs Howell. at Victoria,
who sent a detective to Tahltan village
to stop the murder and secure the exc
cutioner. In those days, means of COM
lnunication between ictoria and the
towns in northern Cassiar We're not UP
to their present mark, and the detec-
tive arrived too late. The hunt oc-
CURED, and at a convenient spot on the
banks of the Stikine, Desculta's hunt
ing knife dexterously welded, disem-
AoOweled the poor little Siwash, and the
2 body was slipped under the ice of the
Stikine a river that seldom gives up
its dead
The day following the murder. the de-
tectiVe arrived on the scene. A friend
of DeSculta's offered to help him find
the murderer, and they started off on
their wild-goose chase. The treacherous
guide led him by one SPOT where, TWEEN
~ feet away, an Indian woman, with
back toward them, was scraping tbs /
snow from the spot where the murder
was committed; led him by the teepee /
where Desculta was gathering his pos
sessions together preparatory to going