The Devils Lake world and inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, N.D.) 1915-1920, 1919-12-17
Child liz ADOPTED J II: !.
BY NEz I. PERCES
Stolen From Crib Beside Mothers
Bed a Years Ago
YEARS oF SEARCH REWARDED
Mother Gets Clue to Whereabouts Of
Son-Now He Will Sell Lands and
Cattle Left Him by an Old Woman
and Will Take Up the Life Of q
White Man-stranue Romance Of
Frontier Life In Idaho.

One night t%wenty-four years ago,
when Idaho was a frontier and ro-
anc still lived in the forests and
the hills, a six-months-old baby was
stolen from his crib beside his mothers
bed in a little log cabin in the noun
thfns, the San Francisco Chronicle
states.
A few weeks ago Mrs. Erick e.
Denley of the Oakland apartments,
Oakland, Cal, found her boy at Lap
wal Ferry. Idaho. He was living on
an Indian reservation as Howard Will
son, adopted son Of q squaw man and
an old Indian woman, both now dead,
and lawful member Of the tribe of Nez
Perez. $.=
A soldier from Idaho came to. the
Preside last January and related at
a party in Oakland a strange ira
ditional story Of a white baby that had
been stolen from a cabin, near a mill
tary reservation one June night in
1895. Mrs. Denley heard Of the story
and at the end of the trail to which
it led she found her SON.. Her husband
died eleven years ago after thirteen
years vain search for their son.
Will SelE His Indian Lands.
As soon as Howard Wilson can sell
the lands and the cattle left to him
by the old Indian, woman who
mothered him for years he will go to
his mothers home in Oakland and be-
come Robert Denley, a man Of the
cities.
Mrs. Denley was born" in Vermont
and her mother died, when the daugh-
ter was one year old. Her father went
Ito Idaho to seek wealth in the mines.
Years after, when the girl was fifteen,
he became seriously i'll.
The daughter and the son of the
fathers partner were called to the
bedside and there they were married.
A year or so later Robert Denley
vas born.
That day in June, 1895. the young
husband was forced to go to a near
by settlement for supplies. His wife
laughed at his fears for her safety.
But while the mother slept, the baby
was stolen from his crib that night.
Indians Confirm Story.
Howard Wilson, who will be Robert
Denley, has heard from the Nez Perez
Indians the story Of his life.
A white man and two white women
appeared among the Indians at Lap
wal in June, 1895. and asked the
Indians to are for a baby boy. The
Indians refused and the white persons
went away, leaving the infant on a
pier.
A young Indian mother took the
baby for her own. When the Indians
went away on a hunting trip the child
was left with white persons and when
the Indians returned the baby again
vas missing.
It developed that Wilson, q squaw
man. had a COW he didn't want. He
did want the white baby. The trade
was made, and as Howard Wilson the
boy grew up. he saw the squaw man
beat the aged Indian woman. who took
the beatings stolidly and said. she
hoped the white boy wouldn't be like
that.
The ,squaw man died and Howard
Wilson was adopted into the nENez
Perez tribe. The adoption entitled the
tribe to draw government rations fol
him. When the old woman died the
boy received all her property and built
over her grave a tombstone such as
never was een before at the Indian
cemetery at Lapwai Ferry.
Mrs. Denley took up the case with
government agents at the reservation.
f, They traced the story of the lost white
boy and found it was her son. They
told the young TAI about it. He was
doubtful, for he didn't know what q
white mother would be like.
The night Of July IL. Mrs. Denley
met her boy. Soon he will be living
with her, for now he is convinced that
she is his mother and that it is better
for him to live as a white man than
az an Indian.
IBABES PLAY aAFRIcAN GOLF