Evening times-Republican., 1903-11-11
Father of the Murdered Indian
Comes to Defense of His
Sons Character
HIS THEORY OF THE MURDER
Intimates That Jealousy On the Part
of Other Indians On Account of Sc
pos Superior Knowledge of English
and Service as interpreter. Were the
Causes.
pecial to Times-Rerublican.

|
Tama, Nov. 1.-THE murder of John
Sepo on tie Indian reservation recent
| ly is still 81 subject o. much discussion
and difference of opinion among the
| Indians or the reservation. A good
deal was said and published regarding
| the alleged bad character of the mur-
dered mar. Becausf. OF these state
ments the father of S,epo. Peter Soldier.
has prepared statement in which he
comes to The defense of his son, and
intimates that the murder was due to
the fact that other Indians were jeal-
Gus Of Sepo because of his superior
knowledge of the English language and
was often called upon to act as inter-
prefer. Peter Soldiers statement
which he requests the Times -Repub-
lican correspondent t0 publish Is as fol-
lows:
/, Peter Soldier. hnd a son and he
was called John Sepo AS all know
John was killed not long since by
whom and in what way no one yet
knows for certain. Many things bad
and false have been said about him
and for that reason / wish to make a
brief state nent in his defense l asked
one, We-1o-Ne-S Silvia, to take down
in Fox What should dictate When
that was done asked one. William
Jones, to put the sanlse into English, for
l want white men everywhere to see
and know the little that l may have 20
say. AS .or me and who / am the
good people OF Tanla and Toledo all
ready know. This Is my statement and
may 1t be listened to:
When Ma-Kwi Pushito first began to
put in claim for his chieftainship
John Sepo was his Interpreter. There
is no doub. at all how jealous he work
ed in behalf OF Ma wi Pushito. Both
were kinsrnen, he anil Ma-Kwi- Pushito
were cousins. John Sepo would take
no pay, mitch less did he wish for 1t: he
simply deyoted himself to the object
before hinl II was I'M ugly story that
told of Jei.a elepo giving aim drink.
But now we know that the story Is not
true. Doet Thompson knows how
the death Of Ma-Kwi-Pushito came
about.
Now in regard to the death OF Wa
10 -Sl-Neri, the man working on the
railroad we know how it happened.
1t is said that Wa. .Ko-Si-Neni had
money on his person, at the time and
that it was taken from him then. But
this money was kept for him by Seq
VITO, for Wa-ko- 81 -Neni was OF the
Fox totem.
Now in regard to the tale that he was
married seven times. Little blame one
can make against him for having mar
ried more than once He put away
wife because he. had found her faith
less. He left her in peace and enter
tanned no thought Of ever taking her
back again.. Now this is in keeping
with the custom of Indians, they can
marry more than once and nothing
need be thought of 1t.
II is also an ugly r1inlor that tells how
he gave drink to Apayash. There Is
no truth In it. Jim Peters is the man
who gave the drink After Apayash
drank the whisky he was made very
sick with burn inside I, Peter
Soldier. must have drunk OF the very
same whisky for I was sick too. from
the effects of it. Tho sickness OF Apay-
ash was due to that whisky and there
is physician who knows about that
sickness 1t is said that Apayash is
of the wolf name. It Is not true. his
totem is the pheasant. I, Peter Soldier,
am OF the FISH totem.
John Sepo was als,o OF the fish totem.
He was by no means tough character,
he was good man 1t is not known
why he was killed. 1t may be that he
was too good of Interpreter. He had
no graspiag motive to play a leading
role He told the Indians whatever he
knew He interpreted the same for
olfe as for another and kept nothing in
the dark He did likewise for all the
women whoever asked him to interpret.
Even when busy with work and women
came asking him to act as interpreter.
he would leave everything ana go at
once to heir help. Some of these
women are Mam-O kia, Pyetenaa and
Atcitawa:ia.
Now Indians were asked to go to
Chicago and he was to be the interpre-
ter Ki-Yl- Na-Wa was to be In charge.
But the death OF his interpreter pre-
vented Ki-Ya- Na-N2a from going to
Chicago, 1t lost him his job and his