MANY MURDERS CHARGED
TO CRAZED INDIAN IN THE
NUSHAGAK RIVER DISTRICT'
Aroused over the murderous-career
of a crazed Inlian in the. upper.Nssha
gak river district, residentts of Dil
lingham have voiced a. plea.-for . add,,
through the Cordova Times. For
yegcauthe Indian has reigned su
preme '.until now.jthe..region is abao,
lutely unsafe; ffomutravelias.. Through,
lac.kof numbers, tha^xesrde«rta of the
district alone are.not able.jbo take the
necessary measures, but they feel aidi
should be given in the emergency. A
special dispatch to the. Times from
Dillingham sayg.^
In the hope that.some help will he
given this section of Alaska in organ
izing a searching party to apprehend
a half-crazed Indian at whose ax and
gup are laid the - responsibility for.
possibly a scare of murders near here
in recent years,.an appeal-to all Alas
kans is being sent out though., the
Cordova Daily Times..
It .wiU cost a great-deal of money
to catch this fiend atrocious, hut until
he-is safe-hebind the bars. the.entire
upper Nushagak river district isfs un
safe for trappers. and .prospectors.
The money is not forthcoming in this
district to Carry, on the work, but it is
imperative .that -something, be done.
Following are the details of the
atrocities committed in this region-.
The man-believed responsible for
t,ha. murders is known- as Klutok, a
full-blooded . native Indian,, born on!
t.ha. Nushagak-iver, Bristol Bay... He |
is 35 years old, 5 feet 4 inches tall, j
and weighs about 135 pounds. Klu-1
tok, or ‘.‘Man from the Mountain,”
reigns supreme at .the.headwaters of
the Nushagak river and on a small
river called the Tic-Chik.
The Indian is a lone wolf, shunned,
by and shunning the outside world,
neither friend of white maru.o native.
All the other, natives in the-region
fear him, as well as most white men..
Through some system that-is. un,.
known, to white men, Klu-rtok keeps in
close and constant -communication/
with what is going ..on..in -the sur-j
rounding country. By what is termed ]
“moccasin telegraph” he. seems to'
know when any man-enters, his terri
tory, and he goes after all-invaders.
Disdaining to use the. weapons of
civilization Joe hia own use„ the half
crazed Indian.shoots game with. a. how
and arrow. .He.packs a 30-30 rifle.for
his human.prey,<To'act as his.guard,
when he is asleep be has a small dog.
Traveling alone his domain in a
kyak or skin hoat*,apparently always
well d ressed, the. Indian has for the
past nine years been.carrying o nhis
reign of terror against, the. encroach
ment of outsiders;.:
Klu-tok first became notorious in
1919, when it is said, that his career
of crime started by. killing two. na-.
tives and at the.time he .stated that
he “would kill two. more all the same
as.mooandfc;’
From that time until the present he
has had-the.whole upper reaches of
the entire Nushagak river under his
control, keeping trappers and pros
pectoraout orrat, lease on their guard
all. the time. He leaves arrows in
front, of. his cabin to warn people to
keep off his trail.
About April 15, 1927, Harvey Sak
risbn, an American white man, to
gether with Charles Anderson, a half
head, born on the Nushagak river,
went up that river to trap beaver..
Turkeys Chickens Pork Muttons? j
, VeaL Beef Pork Sausage
; Bologna Sausage Pigs’ Feet- HJaad^Beese* j
l' Chester Brinh -•* Proprietor I
They landed about 35, miles from
where the Chu-chit-nok river joins
the Nushagak.. at Jack Aho’s cabin.
They t. rapped up to and until the.
22d day, of May of the same year,
having marked off the calendar until
that time, then left a. note on the
table for Jack and Ole Wassentry,.
and left for their trap line. They had
previously made arrangements with
Aho. and Wassentry ta» meat, them
them there at the. cabin about that
date and go down the riypr together.
On the 25th day of May, Jack Aho
and Ole. Wassentry came to the cabin,
found the note and took the dogs and
started back to Sand Point, so as to
be on time for the fishing season.
They expected Harvey and Charley to
follow as soon as they had taken their
limit of beaver.
However, time passed on and they
did not show up, so on the second day
of July the case, was reported to the
authorities. There was not evidence
enough for the. officials to act, so the
local men took it on themselves to act.
Butch Smith, a prospector, and Ole
Wassonty took their boat and started
out to look for the missing men. After
traveling 245 miles and searching for
several days they found Harvey’s,
body in the river about two miles
from Aho’s cabin. The body was
caught by a sweeper and only the
shoulders were visible. Smith and his
companion had been instructed that if
there was sign of foul play to leave
the body where they found it and re
port, to the commissioner: They se
cured the body on the shore and left
to search for the othtjr missing man.
The search was unsuccessful, so they
returned and reported their find to the
authorities. The commissioner au
thorized a body of five men to. go up
and bring the body down. . This was
done, and after the body was taken
from the river, one man took it down,
while the remaining four continued
the search foo the parttner of the
dead man. They continued their
.search for five days and then gave up
in despair. They reported to the
commissioner and the case was
dropped for the time being.
About the 1st of September, 1927,
Andrew Kalvik and Fred Peterson,
white trappers of the district, hired
BUt'ch Smith to take them up the
river to 20 miles above the Tik-chik
river. They arrived one night at
about 12.miles above the Tik-chik and
camped for the. night at a place called
Harpis creek. Mr. Smith was awak
ened at 2.a. m. by a muffled cough. He
got up and looked out the flap of the
tent just i ntime to see a -small dog
appear from behind a clump of wil
lows growing on the bank of the
river, ahout 20 feet away, and no
sooner had the dog appeared than a
hand reached out and pulled the dog
back from sight.
Mr. Smith awakened the. other two
men and together they kept watch
fo another sign of life. It was about
an hour before a sign appeared and
then it was a head or the top of the
head of a man, as though he Was
going to look over the top of the
willows. As soon as the head was
seen Smith gave a yell and jumped
and made a grab for the man.. He
was successful. He caught him by
the forearm and pulled him into the
tent, where a light was struck, and
then they, knew it was the crazy In
dian Klu-tok.
He was not armed at the time, his
rifle being in the skin boat, about ten
feet away. He was held in tin
until morning. The three had decide
ed to leave one man to watch the na
tive and the other two to take the
provisions up to the trapping ground,
which would take about four hours.1
Harvey Kelvig decided to stay. He
was cautioned to keep good watch
and not let the native get to his gun.
The other two left anl were gone
about five hours, returning about
noon. They landed at the place and
Smith shouted “Here we are.” Hw
ever, they got no answer, and things
began to appear different. They got
out of the boat and went up to the
tern,, and there they found Kelvig
shut, mrough the arm and the back of
iiu> head cut open with ana x.
Evidently the native had got to his
gun and shot at Kelvig, creasing him
across the chin and knocking him
down and finishing him with an ax.
The native had fled and had taken his
gun, ax, grub, and a few traps be
longing to the trappers. "However, he
left his skin boat.
Neither Smith nor Peterson were
armed, so they returned at once to
report to the marshal. Smith swore
out a complaint, and the commis
sioner and marshal left together with
a coroner’s jury for the slene of the
murder. The inquest was held and
the jury decided that foul play of
some kind was the cause of his death
and that the crazy Indian was most,
likely responsible for the death. Kel
vig was buried where he fell.
Jack Aho went back and wintered
in the upper Teaches of the Nushagak,
about a mile above the Chu-chit-nok
river. Sometime in December Aho
visited Sid Lohr in his cabin at the
mouth of the King Salmon river,
about four hours’ walk from the Aho
cabin, and at that time Lohr told him ,
he would call on him as agreed on,!
the 1st day of January, 1928. He j
called, an dAho was gone, having evi- j
denttly just left that morning, be-!
cause there was fresh bread and other :
things to show someone had been.
thee recently. Lohr stopped there J
that night. Leaving a note, he re-,
turned to his own cabin the next day. i
About the lk tof March Lohr visit
ed the Aho cabin, about 35 miles up*
the river, so Lohr did not report thee
circumstances, for he thought Aho
was up at that cabin. Now that the
trappers ae all down with their beaver
and other fur, Aho has not turned up.
Natives stopped at Aho’s upper cabin,
but stated that nothing had been
touched in the cache. Evidently Aho
has not been there since leaving his
other cabin. I tis now forty days
past time for him to show up on the
lower river, and he has not shown up;
so foul play is feared in his case also.
Unless something is done at once
to apprehend this crazed native the
entire district here will have to be
! abandoned and the Indian given su
preme-aommand of the entire region,
i ——
I McGrath
jPoolHall
j Fresh Fruits
l Candies'
I Tobaccos
ii Pipes
| Cigarettes
f Soft Drinks
i. f
1 Cigarette Holders
George Walters
Babeesch Moosehide Mitts and Boots
Furs Bought and Sold Clothing
All Kinds of Nice Fresh Groceries and Fruits
Canned Goods of All Kinds Beds and Bedding
A. R. Eldridge
McGrath
jmm ROADHOUSE
Best of Meals and Rooms
WHere Everything Is Homelike and
Where You Are'Cordially Welcomed
GOOD DOG HOUSES; BATHS
Ivar Chilstrom - Prop.
Rough: and Dressed Lum
ber of All
mm lumber co.
I
Try
Kusko
Times