A TRAGIC TALE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 98, 27 April 1932, Page 9

A TRAGIC TALE.

APACHE AND COLLEGE GIRL.

STUDENT'S FATAL VENTURE.

INDIAN'S STRANGE NARRATIVE.

The strange tale of a tragedy, born of liquor, a white girl's indiscretion and an Apache Indian's devotion to the traditions of his tribe was told in the Federal Court at Globe, Arizona last month.

Golney (Mac) Seymour, 21-year-old Apache, is on trial for first degree murder, lie is alleged to have beaten and stabbed to death Henrietta Schmerler, Columbia university student of anthropology, who went to Arizona last summer to live among the Apaches and write a thesis to win her degree.

After his arrest, Seymour —at times talking himself and at others through an I interpreter—confessed on the witness ! stand. The next day, at the start of : cross-examination, he repudiated .that j confession. j Girl Warned of Danger. The story goes back to last July IS. The girl was at her cabin on the edge of the Indian settlement. Her presence there had been resented by some of the older braves and the whites had warned her she was in danger, but she would not believe them. The confession is larded with liquor, in spite of the 18th Amendment and the much older law forbidding the sale of booze to Indians. Drinks Beer and Tulapai. "I visited my father that day," Seymour said. "He told me of dance and asked mo get Elizabeth" (the son's wife). "On way we met lots Indians with beer. I bought fifty cents wortn of beer and drank a few times. Got Elizabeth. We both had horses. Reached my father's wickiup. Robert Gatewood (his brother-in-law) invited me in to drink. I drank some tulapai. "I rode past white girl's house. "She spoke of the dance. Asked me if I would lend her a horse. I said I only had one. She said 'M a yb§ I ride

behind you? I see lots you people doing it.' I said, 'those people married.' She said, 'That's all right.' Invited In, He Says. "Then she asked me in. She had something in s, bottle. She said. 'Drink it.' I said, 'What is it?' She said, 'Whisky.' I drank some. "It burned my throat. She mixed some with sugar and water. It tasted good. She kissed me. "We started for a dance on my horse. We stopped at Muddy Draw to walk across. Then she began teasing inc. I thought she wanted to 'marry' me. She didn't fight. "Then I felt very bad about Elizabeth. I told her I ought not to have done this thing. I told her I was going back to Elizabeth at the range. She got very mad. She threw a rock and hit me in the breast. She cried she was going to tell on me. Then she got a knife out of the bag and tried to cut me. "Hit Her With Rock." "I didn't know what to do. I threw her down and took the knife. I hit her with a rock and cut her neck. I don't, know how long we fought. I was drunk. "Then she got up and waiked a few steps, then fell down. Then I fait very bad. I cried. Then I jumped on my horse and rode away." United States Attorney John C. Gung'l engaged in a Jay-long slashing cross-examination to break down Seymour's previous direct testimony. "Do you tell this jury you did not cut that girl that night or any other time?" demanded Gung'l after exhaustive questioning. This and other questions brought from the Apache only fresh repudiation of the confession he is purported to have made to J. A. Street, department of justice I agent, on November 1. "I did not cut her," Seymour declared | stolidly. "Do you deny killing that girl, to this jury?" "I did not kill her." "And you were drunk," accused Gung'l. "Yes —I was drunk," Seymour answered. "You were so drunk you didn't know what you were doing," the United States attorney declared.

"I was not so drunk I cannot remember," denied the Apache. "If I was too drunk I could not remember." • Squaw A Defence Witness. Previously, Elizabeth, Seymour's 19-year-old squaw, mother of his two children, had testified in defence of her man. Her hand-woven shawl almost covering her green homespun dress, moccasined feet primly crossed, the timid little woman said she saw her husband drinking tulapai (corn brandy) the night hv met Miss Sshmerler. All through the trial, Seymour's parents, 4-H and his squaw, sat beside their son. The elder Apache refused to accept English names, so the father was numbered 4-H by the Government.

John J. Dougherty, Seymour's counsel, failed in repeated efforts to force before the jury alleged facts regarding the Columbia student's character and behaviour, but he was allowed to read into the court record, in the absence of the jury, a statement for the purpose of appeal.

"I desire to offer and am prepared to offer evidence to show," Dougherty said. "Miss Schmerler did not confine her activities to study of anthropology, 1 want to prove Miss Schmerler was vv. gaged in study of abnormal sex impulse of the Indians, and that her conduct w. - such as to arouse indignation and caihr the Indians of the reservation to question her morals."