Steele Collection MS 2008.1.1.1.3.12.8
Letter from David Paterson to Steele (18 November 1912)
Transcription
November 18 1912
Dear Colonel Steele,
Your letter of 16th inst to hand, am sorry you could not visit Maple Creek this Fall we are getting anxious about the commencement of the Armory Building & you could have probably given us some encouragement.
I also missed you from the Stampede gathering at Calgary we had a great time renewing old aquaintances. You should get a copy of the Veterans Parade photo from Marcel at Calgary, it does not show all who were there but most of them appear. The freshest looking man of the whole bunch was Asst Comm Jst Mc I. and one of the oldest looking was Pete McDonald, but the most of them are looking good for some years yet it is a case of survival of the fittest.
Regarding arrest of “Star Child” “Kakatosoinak” Jerry Potts & myself were working on the case for some months on information given by “Weasel Moccasin” Api-itskiw this is the man you mention as having been first arrested in June 1881 we heard from a woman we were familiar with that Star Child had returned & in the Blood Camp reported to may Col H.D Jarvis he sent me with Jerry, Const W. Wilson the redheaded Dentist and _____ [illegible word in parentheses] James Jarvis now Major & Cmd to get here, we left Macleod after midnight for the Blood Reserve and arrived before dawn we had a description of the locality in the Camp where he kept himself and laid close watching the lodge he was supposed to be in, at the final sign of dawn he came out of the lodge, fully armed & got sight of one & got his Winchester Carbine on me at about 10 feet away. Hold me of [sic] I made a move hand or foot he would shoot he held the gun on me for fully half an hour until I distracted his attention by appearing to speak to someone behind him, he turned finally around & I jumped on him and the carbine discharged. This alarmed the whole camp who turned out and surrounded the party. I had Star Child on the ground pretty well choked, then got the handcuffs on him.
Red Crow, Strangling Wolf and “One Spot” made the other Indians leave us alone & helped us get Star Child away from the Camp, but about 200 bucks followed us to MacLeod, and in spite of the Chief.
He was tried before Judge MacLeod and a jury of six some time after the arrest and acquitted “not sufficient evidence” He practically admitted his guilt a dozen times stated what he killed Graburn for but he got off. Damned Jurors made his sneak [sentence is almost illegible] into the brush when the affair started and next showed up until we were crossing Billy River he always had a yellow streak.
Your book will be an interesting publication when completed and I surely must have a copy, for the experiences we all met with in the old days were well worth recording.
Any assistance I can give you for recalling circumstances from 75/ on will be cheerfully rendered.
Yours sincerely,
D. Paterson
Bruce Peel Special Collections