The Oglala light. [volume], May 01, 1914, Image 36

About The Oglala light. [volume] ([Pine Ridge, S.D.]) 190?-19??

Image provided by: South Dakota State Historical Society – State Archives

                
INDIAN MAY BE PARDONED
Cato Sells, Commissioner of Indian
Affairs, told visitors yesterday after
noon that he expects to apply to the
Attorney General for a pardon for
Spo-pe, the Blackfoot Indian at the
Government Hospital for the Insane,
who. supposed to be a victim of
melancholia, broke his silence to a
Blackfoot Indian woman last Sunday
and explained the reason for his long
refusal to utter a word.
The case is one of the strangest
ever known at the local government
hospital and through the Indian's
statement, it has been learned that
he was never insane, but preserved
a silence of thirtytwo years with stoi
cal Indian patience.
The case dates back to the Indian
troubles in Montana, during the late
70's. An army officer with a small
e a i a i e a a k o o v i a e
while the braves were away They
slaughtered the old men, women and
children, with brutish depravity.
When the braves returned. Spo-pe,
the Indian now at the hospital, found
his mother dead among the ashes of
the village and he vowed vengeance.
A vfrhite trader was the first white
man he met and to the mind of the
Indian, the trader was legitimately
his victim. He killed the trader and
later he was arrested and convicted
of murder. Knowing the circumstan­
ces of the case, the court gave the In
dian life imprisonment instead of the
death penalty.
Knowing no English, the Indian
believed he would be killed at the
pleasure of the white man aud refused
to speak.
He was taken to a prison at Detroit
and the prison officials, noting the
stern silence the Indian imposed up
o n i s e e i e v e i o e a
•ictim of melancholia and had bim
committed to the Government Hospi
tal for the Insane.
Waiting through the years for his
death at the hands of the white man,
the Indian Spo-pe never broke his
silence until last Sunday, when a
party of Blackfeet Indians, making a
tour of the hospital, learned his his
tory. An Indian woman of the party
undertook to restore the Indian's
speech, and crooning to him in the
baby talk of the Blackfeet. she even
tually broke down the silent reserve
of the warrior.
His words were at first unintelli
gible but memory finally came with a
rush. "Where is Three Bears?" he
asked. The Indians toid him of Three
Bears, once a famous brave and to the
Indian woman. Spo-Pe poured out his
story. She explained to him that the
white men would not kill him and
translated to the doctors the story he
told.
Commissioner Sells was greatly in
terested in the Indian and he expects
to obtain a pardon for the man.—Ex.