The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-09-30
Yukon Valley Miners viii Take
Holiday
To See Indians Executed In a
Bunch.
MURDERED A MINER.
Police Send Out Invitations to
the Hanging.
Indians and White Men VIII
See First Legal Execution.

Juneau. Alaska, Sept. 3O.-Invitations
to a wholesale hanging at Tagish House
on Tagish Lake are being extended
throughout the Yukon Valley and
southeastern Alaska. by the Canadian
police. Three Indians will either have
their necks broken or be strangled to
death there, at the same time, in a, few
weeks. They killed one prospector and
would have murdered another but for
miraculous circumstances which enabled
him to escape. On this account the at
tendance of ignoring and outcoming
Klondikers and Indians is likely to be
very large Dawson, Dyea, Skaguay
and Juneau will be represented by dele
cations, Juneau especially, as both the
victims are old-time residents of this
town.
The crime Of the Indians was the
most unprovoked and one Of the blood
lest in the history of Alaska The only
survivor, George Fox, is here now. He
tells the first particulars of the thrill
Ing crime which was briefly recounted
last summer, a short time after it Oc-
Cured
William Mehan and Fox left Juneau
last winter They sledded a fine outfit
70 the head of the McCHntOck river,
whence they intended to cross a por-
tage to the HOOtalinQua river and work
some sand bars on that stream. Nc
ClintOek river empties into the lower
end of Lake Marsh, flowing from a
nOrtheasterly direction It is the outlet
of a small lake. But when the two men
got to the head of the river it was along
about the end of May, the portage was
bare of snow and they could not sled
their stuff over. AS the easiest way out
of the trap, they set about whipsawing
lumber and building a boat to carry
them back down the McClintOck and
up the HOOtainqua- The latter river
Il Ha LOT of al Ta-1f IN int he
Lewis river
Near the camp was a small Indian
camp. The white men had pOtlatched
''ictus" tobacco and other things) with
the Indians and otherwise been friendly
to them. When they were leaving
camp with their stun packed in the
boat for down river, Fox took out his
watch to note the time. He told Mehan
that it was just 1O:40. He had hardly
dropped his watch back into his pocket
and picked up his paddle when they
were fred on by the Indians from am
bush in the rear. Fox sat in the bow.
He was struck in the back He fell
partly over the side, with one arm par
alyzed and hanging in the water He
exclaimed; I'm done for, Bill pull
for your life But poor Bill did not
pull. He was dead, riddled by three
bullets in the back, one through the
heart Fox could not see him, but his
position enabled him to see the Indians
running from the woods down to the
shore. Fox moved invOluntarily and
they let him have another vollley, as he
lay helpless and bleeding in the boat.
One bullet had gone clear through his
body and lungs. But by this time the
boat had drifted into rougher water
and the second vOlley struck low 1t
found Judgment in a sack of flour and a
case of cOrned beef
The current here set across the river
against a point about half mile be
low. The Indians ran back into the
woods. The moment Fox saw them run
he knew what they intended to do
They would catch the boat as II
grounded against the point. 1t would
be all up with him then, if he WASH
as good as dead anyhow. His paddle
luckily lay balanced on the gunWaIe'
with just enough of it inside to Keep
it from falling into the water. He tried
to paddle back to shore with his IN
injured right arm, but was too weak
Then another idea struck him. To re-
main in the boat and be caught at the
point was certain death, as the Indians
would certainly kill him, having begun
the lob. in order to secure their outht'
the watch and their guns; on shore
there was a chance for escape. In TINS
critical emergency he placed the paddle
into the water perpendicular to the boat
and feebly turned it around toward the
shore. Chance favored him, for IN a
few moments the boat grounded on