The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1948-09-02

rods west of the Sandusky River, near
Upper Sandusky, Wyandotte County,
| is a barely pereeptible sunken spot
| about the size Of grave. And that
| is just what it is--once the mound of
the 20-year-old son of Black Chief, of
the Wyandottes, legally executed by
| the Indians lot years ago for murder.
| The grave sank after the bark cof-
| fin had rotted away and the body
within had moldered and the shift
| ing soil and falling leaves of more
than century have spread no thicker
over it than over the surrounding
ground.
The young buck died at the hands
of firing squad in September, 1910,
after fair and impartial trial by his
peers in the Indian council house;
retrial by the grand tribunal after
appeal from the first verdict and the
receipt of a sentence more severe
death by firing squad on the morn
ing of the third Friday after
sentence" The first sentence had been
banishment from the tribe and con-
fiscation of his property" Contrary
to white procedure, the appeal was
taken by the prosecution, not the
defense.
Jail Stood Until 1890
So the son of Black Chief offered
no word but waited stoically in the
little Indian log Jail for the third
Friday and death. The Jail, one room
above and one below, very small, with
a single tiny window and an outside
stairway, stood until in the early
1905 some farmer needed the site
for more corn and pulled the historic
relic down.
All the trouble had come about
through the governments first clumsy
attempt at a prohibition law-almost
as disastrous as those later on.
When the Indians from Ohio were
moved further west the Wyandottes
chose to remain and being the most
warlike and fearless tribe Of the
nations, the United States appeased
them by putting them on a reserva-
tion established along the Sandusky
River.
The reservation, according to law,
was bone dry territory-nobody set
thing in it could sell or give to an
Indian any Intoxicating liquor.
Bootleg Liquor
Persons living outside the reserva-
tion were not by the law prohibited
from keeping and selling liquor Con-
sequently the Indians could get all
they wanted at the many bootleg
villages which sprang up all along
the borders.
In one of these villages party of
Indians had congregated to whoop
things up bit that September day.
Most Of them got pretty drunk and
there were several quarrels and
few fights among them.
One old man, a brother of the
half-breed John Barnet, late in the
afternoon procured jug of whisky
and started home with it. He soon
was joined by the 20-year old son of
Black Chief, who walked with him
down the wilderness trail and wanted
some of the liquor. The old man
refused to give it to him.
Murder
Furious, the chiefs son seized
heavy club and beat the old Indian
over the head and when he was down
kept on hitting him. So occurred the
murder for which the son of Black
Chief was sentenced to die.
The evidence was circumstantial
but conclusive. Old Barnet's body
soon was found by other Indians who
passed along the trail and not many
rods further on the chiefs son was
discovered across the path in a drunk
EN- sleep. Near him was the murder
victims empty whisky jug.
The Indians seized the chiefs son,
bound his arms and took him, the
tell-tale whisky jug and the body of
old Barnet to Upper Sandusky, where
the son of Black Chief was lodged
in the little Indian Jail.
There was much excitement
+L~ourhn,,4 +ba Wvapdo+ta nation and