Washington, July 17—After 34 years behind the bars under
life sentence for murder, Spopee, a Black Foot Indian, was unconditionally
pardoned today by President Wilson. He will be released at once from the
federal hospital for the insane here to return to his daughter at Browning,
Mont., whom he has not seen since she was a baby.
A party of Blackfeet, sightseeing in Washington months ago,
happened upon Spopee, grown gray with his long imprisonment. They established
his tribal identity by an Indian song and one of the interpreters recognized in
Spopee the hero of an old legend, who had disappeared a score of years ago into
some white man’s jail. Blackfoot mothers have been singing their children to
sleep with a song about him ever since.
Officials of the Indian office, advised of the discovery,
began an investigation which resulted in his pardon.
Spopee was charged with the murder of a white man near the
Canadian boundary north of the Montana line. It is thought by the department of
justice that the murder probably was committed in Canada and that the
territorial courts of Montana which tried him at Fort Benton had no
jurisdiction. Moreover, it is now believed Spopee committed the murder in self
defense.
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