The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1914-06-04
JOHN SMITH not
rs RECORDS SHOW
United States Attorney Says Govern
ment Records Prove Indian to Be
Only 85-Doubt as To. Chief.
PARCHMENT SKIN HERED1rY
Land Investigation Brought Out
Truth Findings Showed Kah-be-
nung-we-way Was 60 in 1889.


Truth Findings Showed Kah-be-
nung-we-way Was 60 in 1889.
Kah-be-nung-we-Way, otherwise
John Smith, the Chippewa Indian,
well known in Bemidji, who claims
to he 1913 years old, and former In
dian chief who is in Minneapolis
seeking chance to go on the stage,
is only IS years old and has not even
a strain of royal Indian blood in his
veins, according to government rec
ords in the hands of Gordon Cain,
special United States attorney for the
department of justice, and R. J. Pow
ell, Minneapolis attorney, who is de-
Tending the cases of the Indians in
the land cases now pending, says the
Minneapolis Tribune.
Government officials have long
been troubled by old Kah-be-nung-
we-way, they say. Two years ago,
when the land cases were being tried
before Judge Page Morris in Fergus
Falls, the defense wished to call the
old Indian. 1t was said that ne
would show where number Of land
allotmcnts in. dispute were owned by
mixed-blood Indians, and old Kah-be-
hung We-way, because of his old age,
could prove the blood OF nearly every
Indian. Mr.. Cain then went to the
office Of the Indian agent at Onigum,
MINI, where he looked up the rec
ords Of the census of 1889 under the
Nelson act, which was made under
the direction of the late United
States Senator Rice to secure the re-
linquishment of the allotments of
land from the Indians.
Sixty Years Old in 1889.
Kah- be-nun g-we-way, who is a
Leech Lake Indian, was found to have
been 60 years old in 1889. The fol-
lowing agreement was then made and
signed by both Mr.. Cain and Mr..
Powell: ut is hereby stipulated and
agreed by and for the respective par
ties that the ages of certain ~. In
dians as shown by the records at the
office of the Indian agent at Onigum,
Mimi, are as follows: Kah-be-nung-
we-way, 60 years old in 1889"
Not content with this evidence,
Mr.. Cain went further and inter
viewed a number of Indians, whose
ages were shown to be older than
Kah-be-nung-we-way. Iah-Baince,
who is "a years old, was questioned.
He laughed and said: II am older
Kah -be-nung-we-way and l played to-
gether when boys. 1 was so much
| bigger than he that l used to take his
bows and arrows away and he would
cry" according to Cain. r.
May4huc-ke-ge-sh head chief of
the band of Mississippis, testified
that he was born the summer before
the stars FELL" which was in 1888,
and that ah-be-nung-we-way was
thorn two summers before him.
What One Squaw Says.
Ay-dow -ah-comig-o-quay, who both
Mr.. Powell and Mr.. Cain say is the
Oldest Indian in Minnesota, and that
she is not yet 100, told that she was
4 married and had children when Kah
,be-nung-we-way was born. She re-
| fers to him as mere child.
| Both Powell and Cain agree that
Kah-be-nung-w e-way appears to be
as old as he says he is, but they say
it was undoubtedly caused by here
1 dity.. The old Indians grandfather
: was um-we-way-nung, which means
sloose skim Kah-be-nung-we-way
means young wrinkles
.'Old Kaby" has been picking up
easy money for the last few years
by saying he is more than century
old quarter old. II have thor
oughly Investigated every claim made
by him and find that he is lying"
said Mr.. Cain.
s, When questioned about the old
Indian Mr.. Powell laughed and said:
|sI have been waiting for two years
for somebody to get on to that old
fellow He has fooled the newspa-
pers long enough. He is only S5
4 years old and has not the slightest
chief blood in him. | can find only
one trace in his tdodain,' or Indian
/ family, of royal blood. Mah-je-dah-
bow, his cousin, was leading med
icine man Kah-be-nung-we-way has
worked in the lumber camps nearly
all his life One thing I can say
for him is that he is a good actor.
/ He has heard of the historic events
and can tell of them. as well as if he
! were actually participant"