The San Francisco call., 1909-10-28
MUST ANSWER FOR
! SHOT FROM AMBUSH
Halfbreed Who Won in Fierce
Game of Blood Caught by
the Government
Arrest Recalls Desperate Feud
Fought to a Finish in the
Humboldt Wilds

James Donnelly, half breed Indian
1 OF the Hoopa valley reservation in
Humboldt county has been arrested by
| the United states authorities and is
| confined in the Alameda county Jail to
answer to the charge of numbering
Chickasaw, an Indian, more than six
/ years ago. The murder was the eli
max of a feud. far reaching and as
fierce as any that Kentucky or Ten
nessee ever knew.
Murder was followed by murder un-
til at length all those who had ranged
themselves as partisans of one side or
| the other were killed except only the
Indian, Chickasaw, and his never sleep
| Ing enemy, the halfbreed, Donnelly,
| who, combining with his native cruelty
the cunning of the white man. nursed
the blood feud and kept alive the fame
Of hate.
LIFE AGAINST LIFE
| For years the hills and remote, al
most unexplored valleys that hide away
among the mountains of Humboldt
county formed hunting ground where
Indian against halfbreed played the
game of life and death-a game that
meant fnality for one of them. The
game was played alone, the other In
dians knowing that to take sides meant
but to furnish fresh fuel to the fury
of the feud And halfbreed skill and
cunning, the lore OF woods from In
dian ancestry and the cold calcula-
ton Of the Anglo-Saxon mind, deter
mined who should win the game.
From far niountainside, where shell
tering trees made a close ambush, a
rifle bullet sped one day. and then
an Indian lay below the plying skies.
the Indian Chickasaw, marking the
last play of the game, mute evidence
that the blood feud had been wiped
away with blood.
For years the murderer kept in hid
ing. but finally his caution lost it's
edge and he returned to the Hoopa
valley reservation, where the Indians
sheltered him, through fear, perhaps
perhaps not caring to fan the feud
again into an active flame. But in the
end the law of blood for blood called
for accounting and demanded life for
life.
MANY SUBSEQUENT MURDERS
The federal officers whose duty de-
mands that they keep peace on Indian
reservations were called to Humboldt
county by what seemed almost an cpl
demic of crime. Oscar Porter, a store
keeper on the reservation, had been
murdered In cold blood and shortly fol-
lowing Bert Porter, a white man. and
Joe Vierra. a Portuguese, had yielded up
their lives to some assassin. This was
in December of last year.
Slowly but surely the government
cast and drew its net and when the
meshes filtered all the suspects the
murder of six long slow passing years
arose to call for blood atonement. A
mere hint here, a mere breath there
and threads gathered into q rope that
bound the halfbreed to the corpse that
lay below the California skies so long
ago. Slowly but immutably the law
built up its case and now, before the
halfbreed whose stealth and cunning
carried him through all the dangers of
the feud there lifts the shadow of the
gallows. the stern and unforgetting
justice OF the white mans law.
That Donnelly had any hand in the
murders which were responsible for
his capture is not believed. Since com
ing down from where the mountains
gave him sanctuary he has been free
from trouble of any kind. The feud
that burned so brightly was ended. the
game that he had played had ended to
rifle bullet flying forth from ambush
and the faction that he fought was
dead and gone. But back of it. still
unforgetting, justice with blinded ewes
slept not and in the end it trapped him
and confronts him with the rope