The copper era and Morenci leader., 1922-05-12

The opening skirmish of one of the most interesting legal barIles in the history of Mohave county was fought out today in the Oatman Court of Domestic Relations when John Oat- man, wealthy Mohave Indian, was sued for divorce by his wife, Estelle Oatman Both plaintiff and defen dant live near the Oatman gold camp in which the Mohave chief is heavily interested.
 John Oatman claims to be the grandson of Olive Oatman, famous in Arizona history. In 1851 the Oat- man family while on its way from Illinois to California was massacred by Indians. One daughter. Olive, was spared and forced to marry a Mohave brave. She became such thorough Indian woman that years later, when her brother insisted that she leave her husband and children, she went insane.
 In bringing her suit for divorce yesterday Mrs. Oatman swore, both legally and literally, that her husband had reverted 10 dog dinners that he frightened her on several occa. sions by putting phosphorus on his Eody/ and doing the old tribal ghost dances, and that he had had many conferences with bootleg pei|ilers of "coffin-varnish," ''forty-rod' and "sheepherder's delight
 Moreover. besides naming an Al bino girl of the Yavapai tribe, Mrs. Oatman stated that her husband had built covered pit and filled it with gila monsters, lizards, vinagrones, scorpions. tarantulas and rattle 1 snakes. that he had pushed her int i said pit when she objected to the !, Yavapai Albino swimming the Colo rado river to visit her husband, and !! that he had displayed other evidences 1 of failing marital affections.
 {, Through her attorney, V. P. Lucas ] of Oatman, Mrs. Oatman further ai, 1 leged that her husband was addicted 1 to eating loco-weed and tha- during the dementia following this dissipa tion on one occasion he had tied her l into the topmost prickly branches oi candelabraF cactus 9 feo- high and had left her there during a scorch ing hot afternoon.
 | She further alleged that while in the hogan. or house, MT. Oatman continually scratched matches on his bare feet, that following an ancient | Mohave custom he had refused :c look at his motner-in-law since the t.Oatman marriage in 1903 and that ir 1911 he had threatened to feed hel i youngest son, then eigh- months old
 to the Mohave sacred rS.tlesnake which is fed but once a year.
 While using dynamite in working aclaim in f.he Oatman gold mining district in 1916. MT. Oatman losl part of his scalp. one eye and also sus tained such severe decorations of the lower jaw that Dr. R. A. Hoag, 2 local dentist who was called as g witness, found it necessary to extract all of Oatman's teeth. Since whicE time, Mrs. Oatman testified, her hus band had etaken,delight in removing
 his false teeth, taking out his glas: eye and "scalping himself'' by remov
 ing his wig in order to frighten bot
 his own children and the boys ant
 girls of the tribe.
 ! Moreover, Mrs. Oatman continued
 her husband spent most of his none!
 buying eyes from a Los Angele'
 optical goods house When ques
 toned as 70 what disposition hel
 husband made of Che many gNas.
 eveG ;,e purchased, Mrs. OatmaI
 stated that he lost most of them a
 poker and that for some weeks be
 fore his appearance in coupe Oat
 man had had no ar3icial eye at al
 owing to the refusal of the Los An
 geles optical goods house to eXtent
 him fIlr3her credit.
 It also was brought out 1hat fol
 lowing a recent division of communa
 property, Oatman. in order to ge
 his half of the household furnitur
 had sawed one table, three chairs ant
 chest of drawers in Two and hat
 then removed his half of the furni ture from the Oatman home. Mrs Oatman complained particularly ant
 bitterly that Oatman, in order to ge what he claimed was his half O. everything. had sawed in two
 pastel picture of Mary Dois de Vache Ter mother. which crayon likenes she said she had purchased in tn town of Oa+man 1T wears ag' rom 8 traveli t,5 >w e1iNh artist
 Later in the hearing Mrs. Oatmal
 admitted. however. that some tim
 afterward. when she and her hus
 band had become;,e reconciled .em ; porarily, he had galIantly attemDtet
 to nail the picture of her nothe
 and the other household goods to gether agaiIl. z
 During the testimony a strans'
 Mohave custom was revealed. T years past. when Moha9e wifi, wished to divorce her husband sh; merely put his saddle outside tb' door and no further hint was needed The husband did not return Bu now, Mrs. Oatman complained. 'N, 1lorse no more, no mule no more. II
 saddle no more. My husband gCi: fiiyver in the kitchen with no rubbe on the wheels. But Mohave woman
 can't stick a flivver outside door lik old time saddle.'
 Tn his own defense. through Lawve H. c. Topp. MT. Oatman stated i,ha he was tired of married life, that m wife put mud on her hair and fet