Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1899-11-23
GOES TO FEDERAL COURT.
Indian Case Recently in the Distric,
Court to Be Pushed by E. 1. VII.

1uOlhn SUSe Recently III tue DlStTlCt
Court to Be Pushed by Z. /. Will
cox.
E. l. Wilcox. of Montour. who poses
as the friend and adviser of the Sac and
Fox Indians whose abiding place is on
the Tama reservation, proposes to Sc
cure relief for Lelah- Puc- Ka-C Chez and
her young husband. Ta-Ta- Pi- Cha, who
recently attempted to secure by writ
of habeas corpus in the district court
of this county, the release of Lelah
from the custody of the Indian school
officials. Wilcox has been interviewing
the high chiefs at Des Moines. and of
his visit there the Register says:
-Four hundred and fifty redskins of
the Sac and Fox Indian reservation In
Tama county are ready to start On the
warpath with rifle and tomahawk. T..
I. Wilcox, of Montour, was in consulta-
ton with Judge Oliver p. Shiras, judge
OF the federal court, here Wednesday,
and said that 1t was only because of his
personal intercession that the Indians
had been prevented from making an
assault on the people of Tama City and
! Toledo to avenge themselves for wrongs
inflicted by the Indian agent. Wilcox
finally arranged with Judge Shiras to
go to Cedar Rapids and there file pc
tition for habeas corpus for the release
of an Indian girl aged IS. who has been
confined in the government Indian
training school at Toledo for the past
month. The application being filed at
Cedar Rapids, Judge Shiras promised
| to take the matter up in chambers in
Des Mones, where he is holding court
| for Judge Woolson. Wilcox returned
4 to his home last night assuring the Of
! ficials that he will be able to control the
! Indians as long as the courts have the
I controversy in hand
1.-THE woman in the case Is Lelah-
j puc-ka-chee, and she Is married. said
/ Wilcox yesterday. Her husband is Ia
tai cha. They were married when she
was II. according to Indian rite, the Sac
| and Fox Indians being permitted to
marry on the reservation, according to
tribal customs. When the training
school was established by the govern
4 ment at Toledo Indian Agent w. G.
Malin sent out an order for all Indian
children under IS to enroll in the school.
The Indians refused and hid their chill
dren. The girl in question was taken
into another county and was enrolled In
a school near Belle PLANE. An Indian
interpreter WdS CudIecu WIFI hSiPiH6
i children to escape from the reservation
i and on the trial the state summoned
the woman in this case as witness.
induced her parents and husband to ac-
company her into court at Tama City
The interpreter was discharged, but the
Indian agent and Superintendent G. N
Nellis of the school seized the girl, took
her away from her husband by force
and, conveying her to the Indian schoo
building, confined her there. tying hel
in a room part of the time. She ha:
been detained in her hoom there since
the first of the month. 1t Is for her re
lease that / am now seeking writ o.
habeas corpus. The husband Is nomi
nally the plaintiff, and the claim II
made that the government has no RICH
to force the Indians to go to school, ant
In this case have no right to detain
married woman.
Continuing, the report says:
more than 300 Indians have refused
to accept their government pay TO
more than a year on account of thi
controversy with the government AM
on account Of other complaints, one 0
which relates to the opening Of road
through the reservation. 1t beini
claimed by them that the roads hav
been cut diagonally across their Ian
without compensation, and are not fol
lowing section lines.
wilcox is 9 farmer and schoe