The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-02-15
WITCHES SHOT TO DEATH.
A Barbaric Superstition That Still Sur
 wives in the Indian Territory.

l A bdFbdTlc superstition InaC Still Sur-
 wives in the Indian Territory.
 Witch-hunting and witch-killing still
 territory, even though these are gene
 rally supposed to have been sufficiently l imbued with the white mans knowl- edge to have cast off these old supersti-
 tions. The extent to which the fear of whichcraft dominates these people was
 illustrated in the trial and conviction of the Rev. Solomon Hotema recently. Hotema is full biooded Choctaw and was the central figure in a witch hunt that resulted in the killing of several in- noeent persons Men, women and chill dren who came under the ban of the witch doctor were shot down in cold blood. The trial of Hotema occurred recently at Paris, Texas, ill the Federal 1 court
 Hotema, who is orty-eight years old, | lived at Grant I, T., and had been 6 judge, member of the nations coun- cil and a regularly ordained Presbyte- rian minister, graduate of the Presby- terian college at Roanoke, Va. He had just returned from q meeting of the Presbyterian general assembly in New Orleans when he killed the so-called witches.
 Hotemas witch- killing feat was a great shock to his white friends. It is a striking instance of the force of heredi- ty. In early childhood he was imbued with belief in witches by hearing his father Captain John Hotema, speak of them. The latter was for forty-five years ruling elder in the Presbyterian church and was a captain of light horsemen, but q firm believer in witch craft. His son, Solomon, being asked why it was white persons and half breeds were not troubled with witches, if there were such things, replied that witches can't shoot balls into them be- cause they eat so much salt, and the bullets won't penetrate and don't have any effect" History shows, he says, that when the white people first came to America they discovered witches among the Indians, and that they have been among them ever since.
 During his imprisonment Hotema has written a biography and sketches in which he makes copious citations from the Bible to prove the existence of witches.
 The tragedy was enacted in the vicin- ity of Cold Springs church, six miles northwest of Grant. There had been a number of sudden deaths in the conl- munity from spinal meningitis. A little son of Solomon Hotema was among the number Hotema was then pastor of the church and was the head man and leader among his people as we'll as their spiritual adviser. The Choctaws were greatly disturbed by the sudden deaths, for which they were unable to account. The manner in which the disease worked upon the victims caused them to attribute the malady to the evil charms of witches.
 Meetings were held at the church to discuss the matter and tO devise means of staying the plague. Sam Tarnatub- by. who lived fifteen miles east of Grant. had the fame among the full bloods of being a great witch doctor, He was sent for. His diagnosis of the patients confirmed the suspicion that they had been bewitched, By the oc- cult methods of the witch doctor he To- cated the witches, and declared that the only way that the plague could be stopped and the patients relieved was to kill them. Some of the supposed witches were relatives Of the defend ants. and had sat up with the sick members of their families
 Tarnatubby having declared that the