A Tribe Executes Its Own Murderer Before the Agent Arrives
The Colville band hangs a man who killed a fellow Indian and committed a fresh crime, administering last rites before the government agent can reach camp.
The Indian Theodore who murdered Necols, another Indian, was hung by his tribe, the Colvilles, last Sunday about sunset. This murder was committed last June and the murderer has been at large ever since. Following the arrest of Michel and Winnum-smool-mool the agent (Waters) demanded the murderer from Cotolyo, chief of the Colvilles. The Indians brought him into camp, near the Catholic Mission, and sent for Agent Waters. Being incensed at a fresh crime committed (rape) they convened a council and decided that he must die. Before their agent arrived, however, the Indians called one of the Fathers of the Mission who administered the last rites for the condemned man and as the sun went down they hung him decently. It is the intention of Agent Waters to punish Indians who commit crime and protect and aid the Indians in their efforts to become good men, and to this end he has been hard at work ever since he assumed charge of affairs at the agency, to ferret out these criminals.
“Being incensed at a fresh crime committed, they convened a council and decided that he must die.”
This brief item records a Colville band exercising its own justice on the cusp of federal consolidation of reservation authority — a moment when tribal law and the Indian agent's power overlapped and competed. The language of the day is ugly; the underlying story is one of a community policing itself while a government agent claimed the right to do so.
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