Race, Identity and Resistance on the Cariboo Road:
the Story of Moses Paul and Paul Spintlum
Contents:
- The deaths of William White and Ah Wye
- The shooting of Alexander Kindness
- Eluding the authorities
- The Chiefs get involved
- The surrender
- Negotiating legal representation
- Rex vs. Moses Paul and Paul Spintlum
- Broken promises and unpaid legal bills
- The hanging of Paul Spintlum
- Moses Paul's last days
- References and newspaper reports
Introduction
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It was against this backdrop that a series of events occurred which gave rise to what has been characterized as "one of the greatest manhunts in British Columbia history", the search for Moses Paul and Paul Spintlum.
Moses Paul, a Shuswap Indian affiliated with the High Bar Indian Band, was born in or around Clinton around 1880. Little is known of his early life, other than that he was born to a community which had been decimated by smallpox fifteen years earlier, and grew up on a reserve comprised of small parcels of land even the Indian Agent conceded were of poor quality and unfit for cultivation. He was married to Margaret Robbin, had at least one child (a six year old son, Louie, born 1905) and had a mother and sister living at High Bar (in 1912, Paul's mother was said to be living at High Bar with an Indian named "High Bar Pete"). Paul was said to be "of slight build" and "pleasant looking", with regular features and a black moustache.
Moses Paul spoke both Shuswap (Secwepemc) and English, may also have been conversant in Lillooet and/or Carrier. In the early 20th century buildings on Shuswap reserves were made entirely of logs, and the Shuswap of the area made their livings by salmon fishing in the Fraser, hunting and trapping beaver and deer, or by working for white settlers as cattle herders and packers. By 1912, however, provincial game laws were beginning to interfere with traditional Shuswap trapping activities, and the Indian Agents of the day were endeavoring to convince them that "eventually they must depend on the cultivation of the land for a living". Alcohol had also become a serious problem on many reserves, the "liquor traffic" having been increased by the ongoing construction of the railroad and the continuous arrival of outside workers.
The deaths of William White and Ah Wye
Labourer William White, 40, was said to have come to the Cariboo from Ontario, and had been working near Clinton with a government bridge gang. He lived on the Cariboo road, near Clinton. On Tuesday afternoon, July 4, 1911, White ran into Charles Haller (described in several reports as a "half-breed") who was driving a team belonging to a local rancher. White, who was on foot, decided to join Haller in his wagon. White had some rye whisky, which the two men began to share. At some point, the men encountered an Indian on horseback they knew as "Cock Eye", who they believed to be from Kelly's Lake. "Cock Eye" had been hunting, and had a rifle strapped to his saddle.
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A Coroner's inquest into White's death took place in the office of the Clinton Hotel on July 8, 1911, with Ashcroft Coroner George Sanson, 49, in charge. The witnesses were Haller, Ah Wye and George Green of Clinton, who had discovered White's body on the Cariboo Road, just outside the 29 Mile Post. Green indicated he had been travelling with a team to Ashcroft, when he discovered White's body lying sixty feet from the road. Green said he got down from his wagon to investigate the man's condition, and found he was dead. Green reported that the body -- who was only later determined to be William White -- was lying face down, with his coat drawn up over his head. There was blood on the ground nearby, and more blood on a rock lying about 4 feet from the body. There was also blood on a tree about a foot from White's head. Green saw no signs of a struggle, nor any evidence that the body had been dragged. The inquest concluded that White came to his death at the hands of "some person or persons unknown".
Moses Paul and Charles Haller were arrested in July 1911 for White's murder. Haller was released in early August, but Paul was not.
On August 15, 1911, Paul escaped from the old log jail in Clinton, where he was awaiting trial. Clinton Police Constable John McMillan had permitted Paul's sister to visit him at the jail, and while she was there she supplied Paul with a wrench. Paul was also assisted in his escape by his friend Paul Spintlum, a Shuswap Indian from the Canoe Creek Indian Band with a notoriously damaged eye. Paul's sister had been able to hand him a wrench through the bars of the jail door.
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An inquest into Ah Wye's death was held on September 30, 1911 at the Clinton court house. The inquest concluded that Ah Wye had come to his death by a blow from an axe, inflicted by some party or parties unknown. However since Ah Wye was the principal Crown witness in the murder case against Moses Paul, and since Paul was still at large, he and Paul Spintlum became immediate suspects.
Efforts were made throughout the winter of 1911/1912 to apprehend Paul and Spintlum, but to no avail.
The shooting of Alexander Kindness
On May 3, 1912, several months since the last confirmed sighting of Paul and Spintlum, the two were observed near Pollard's ranch, a well-known roadhouse located on the Cariboo Road north of Clinton. Charles Truan, a hired man at Pollard's who had been a rancher in the Clinton area for twenty-six years was out looking for stray horses, and in an area near 57 Mile Canyon came upon an encampment consisting of a tent, tethered horses and "two Indians preparing breakfast". Recognizing the men as the suspected murderers and jail breakers on each of whose heads was a price of $1500, the unarmed Truan greeted them in Chinook before beating a hasty retreat. He lost no time riding back to Clinton, where the Chief Justice was conducting the Assize Court.
Upon hearing Truan's news, the Chief Justice released Provincial Constables Alexander Kindness, 27, and Provincial Constable Forest Loring of Ashcroft, as well as three jurors who were not needed for the Assize Court: Archie Boyd, William "George" Carson, 32, and William Ritchie. The men were joined by Clinton rancher Charles Robert Pollard and Charles Truan. One by one, so as not to attract attention, the seven left Clinton mid-morning to meet at Pollard's. The Vancouver Province reported that the men were in high spirits, and that "their precautions appear[ed] to have been cast aside":
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There were no Indians around the roadhouse to carry warnings and the five young fellows got ready for their dash into the woods as if they were on a summer afternoon picnic. There were saddles to be got out and horses to be fed, and the lad who was ready first cut a few capers around the hotel yard just to show that he wasn't afraid of a few Indians.
Beach Lascelles of Vancouver, old-timer of Cariboo and experienced frontiersman, watched the proceedings with mistrust. "If you fellows had a brass band ahead of you that would fix you fine," he warned them, but they only laughed and hurrahed all the more. ... If they had been going out to a pony race they could not have formed a jollier party. |
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Loring and ... chased the shooter on foot for about 300 yards, Loring firing several shots from a revolver, before determining it was hopeless. They returned to the clearing to find Kindness dead. Loring and George Carson started back toward Clinton to have Loring's bleeding wound attended to, and the uninjured Archie Boyd and ... placed Kindness' body across one saddle to return him to Clinton.
In a newspaper interview the following day, Loring indicated he believed it was Moses Paul who had done the firing, since he said Paul was "known as a dead shot" (Loring believed it was only the fact he was jumping from his horse at the time that saved his life, the bullet intended for Loring's chest instead finding its place in his arm).
An inquest into Alexander Kindness' death took place on May 4, 1912, with Coroner George Sanson again presiding. The first witness was Forest Loring, who described the events of May 3rd in detail, but indicated he could not identify the man who shot Alexander Kindness, since "his back was to us all the time". Loring could indicate only that the man "looked to be a short, thick, stout fellow". William Ritchie was next ...
The Coroner's jury found that Alexander Kindness came to his death by a bullet wound, "said wound being caused by a bullet from a rifle in the hands of one person at present unknown but we believe the shooting to have been done by Moses Paul or Paul Spintlum and we strongly recommend that the Provincial Government give this district better police protection than we have had in the past".
Alexander Kindness had been living in the Clinton area for 4 1/2 months at the time of his death. He had been in charge of the Clinton jail. Described as a "splendidly put up chap of six feet two inches, with a clear complexion and a Scotch accent", Kindness was reportedly well liked, and was thought to have made a number of improvements at the jail since his arrival. Prior to his arrival in Clinton, Kindness, who was born in Bognell, Banffshire, Scotland, had been four years with the Ayrshire Constabulary in Scotland, and spent some time as a motorman with the British Columbia Electric Railway Company. He worked for one year with the Vancouver Police Department, from which he resigned in May 1911.
Kindness was buried in Vancouver on May 8, 1912. Vancouver citizens turned out by the thousands, lining the streets to watch as Kindness' remains were conveyed from Green & Merkley's undertaking rooms, escorted by a squadron of one hundred Vancouver policemen and BC Electric Railway representatives. Twenty members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and a contingent from the 72nd Highlanders were also present, as were fifty local firemen and a squadron of the BC Provincial Police. Marching slowly along Hastings Street, the procession moved to the strains of the dead march and muffled drums, to the First Presbyterian Church, where the funeral service was given by Reverend Fraser. All flags at local fire stations and police headquarters were at half mast during the day. The service was described as "short but solemn".
Eluding the authorities
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The first days of the search yielded no sign of Spintlum and Paul. On May 5, 1912 the Attorney General wired Superintendent Campbell, instructing him to post new notices of an increased reward of $1500 for each man, dead or alive. Special constables continued to arrive in the area in droves, and additional posses were convened, limited only by a scarcity of horses. The points on the Fraser River where Paul and Spintlum were thought to be likely to cross were guarded.
On May 8, 1912 it was reported that Paul and Spintlum had stolen a saddle from the Janes Ranch, twenty miles northwest of Clinton and not far from the Fraser River (the horse and saddle first spotted by Kindness, Loring and the others on May 4th had been abandoned by Paul and Spintlum during the ensuing chase, along with other supplies and food). However the papers continued to insist that "[e]very possible move of the murderers is being anticipated as far as is humanly possible, and it is not believed that they can escape". For many weeks the hunt for Paul and Spintlum remained front-page news in British Columbia papers, with reports regularly suggesting Chief Fernie's posse were "close on the desperadoes' heels". On May 22nd word came from Bridge Creek that the trackers had come in sight of Paul and Spintlum for the first time, and that while they were twelve to fourteen hours behind the fugitives, they were not yet optimistic about being able to arrest them.
While the officers arriving in the Cariboo to assist in the search were said to be "specially picked veterans" (many had served in the Boer War or in India), many of the searchers were suffering for their lack of familiarity with the terrain. It was reported that "morning comes none too soon for the pursuers", and that they were waking up to blankets white with frost before daylight, glad to take up the chase as soon as possible. By May 25, 1912 the chase had shifted from the Canoe Creek area to the headwaters of the Bonaparte, where Paul and Spintlum, who were believed to have stolen two more horses in the intervening weeks, were thought to be camping near Fish Lake. For the police, availability of horses was becoming an even more pressing issue -- even plough horses from local ranches were pressed into service.
By the end of May 1912, more than seventy officers were engaged in the chase. Horses remained scarce, and heavy showers at the end of the month made it hard work for the searchers to keep to the trail. On May 27th it was reported that Paul and Spintlum had abandoned their horses and taken off on foot. There were reports (possibly erroneous) they had been seen near One Hundred Mile House.
The Chiefs get involved
By the Fall of 1912, the provincial government had spent more than $40,000 on the search for Paul and Spintlum, and the two men were still at large. The newspapers carried frequent reports of sightings of the two men -- Moses Paul was rumored to have attended Clinton's Fall Fair disguised as an aged "klootchman" (the Chinook term for woman), but they continued to elude the authorities. The case was becoming an embarassment to the BC Provincial Police and the federal government, both of which were convinced Paul and Spintlum could not have avoided capture for so long without the assistance of their First Nations compatriots. In mid-November, Indian Affairs Inspector Thomas Cummiskey, 54, arrived in Clinton and -- as he later described in a letter to J.D. McLean, his superior in Ottawa -- arranged meetings with a number of area Chiefs. Cummiskey met first with Chief Camille of the Canoe Creek Band, Chief Joe Moses ("High Bar Joe") of the High Bar Band and Chief Jimmy Gabriel, 57, of the Clinton Band -- the Chiefs of the bands with which Paul and Spintlum were most closely affiliated. Chief Camille impressed Cummiskey as "a very good type of Indian and one who with moral persuasion could be made [to] act in the upholding of peace and law". It was noted that Chief Joe Moses, 31, was "closely connected with one of the outlaws" (Moses Paul hailed from High Bar, and the two may have been related). Finally, although Cummiskey described Chief Jimmy Gabriel of the Clinton Band as "not ... so good a type of Indian as the other two", he ...
Cummiskey asked the Chiefs why the Indians had been reluctant to assist police in apprehending Paul and Spintlum. The Chiefs, in turn, gave their reasons. All had been antagonized by what amounted to a campaign of harassment by the BC Provincial Police: members of the Chiefs' communities had been forbidden to leave their reserves (preventing them from planting their winter gardens), and Jimmy Gabriel had been incarcerated for twenty-three days on suspicion he was withholding information. Moreover, all the Chiefs were concerned about what would happen to Paul and Spintlum once they were caught. Pressed, Chief Camille admitted that certain men from the Canoe Creek -- Spintlum's home community -- were continuing to assist Paul and Spintlum. Likewise, Joe Moses also admitted that a number of his people were friendly with the men, and had been of assistance to them. Cummiskey left the interview feeling he was developing a rapport with the Chiefs, and wrote to J.D. McLean that "if [he] remained in that part of the country for three or four weeks, [he] could persuade the chiefs to bring the outlaws in".
A month later, J.D. McLean responded to Cummiskey's letter from his office in Ottawa. Although he supported Cummiskey's efforts to persuade the Chiefs "not to abet outlaws", he instructed his Inspector to leave the matter in the hands of the police and return to his office in Vernon. In the meantime, however, Cummiskey had continued to lobby the Chiefs. Chief James Retasket ("Tyee Jimmy") of the Lillooet Band, 58, Chief Bob Shelkwa of the Pavilion Band and Chief Major Churchill, 66, also of Pavilion (Leon Creek reserve), were prevailed upon to assist.
Chief Major Churchill (who the papers reported had been "named after a British army officer, whose exploits just prior to his birth took the fancy of his father") was ultimately responsible for locating Paul and Spintlum in the Nicola Valley, 14 miles north of Spence's Bridge. According to the New Westminster British Columbian, Chief Churchill "talked to them in a friendly pow wow [and] invited them to cache their rifles and knives and come with him, to the police". In fact, Churchill met with the men on two occasions, on December 13th and 24th, 1912. On the second occasion, he was accompanied by High Bar Joe and "Basil", and on a third visit by Constable Forsyth. It is impossible to know exactly how the Chief was able to convince Paul and Spintlum to surrender. He told the British Columbian his line of argument was "that the two outlaws were bound to be caught some time or other; they were living a life of suspense; [and] the chief had made up his mind that they were to be brought in and delivered over to justice, and that as sensible men they knew that however they might dodge the white man, they could not dodge the Indians ...". Whatever the case, Paul and Spintlum accompanied Churchill to the Bonaparte reserve on December 24, 1912.
For Thomas Cummiskey, still relatively new in his role as Inspector of Indian Agencies in the region, the surrender of Paul and Spintlum was a major accomplishment. So proud was Cummisky of his role in the affair that he featured it prominently in his annual report to Parliament for 1912/1913:
The surrender
On December 28, 1912, Paul and Spintlum surrendered to Cummiskey on the Bonaparte Reserve, about 12 miles north of Ashcroft. The newspapers reported that the two were "delivered" to Cummiskey by neighbouring Chiefs, "under threat that their official dignities as Chiefs would be cancelled if the outlaws were not handed over before the end of the year". The Vancouver Advertiser reported that "Paul and Spintlum, although somewhat emaciated, are not in such a deplorable condition as might be expected from long exposure and hardship, and as they quietly smoked their cigars in the waiting room of the Ashcroft Hotel they did not seem like the desperate criminals which they really are". The captives left Ashcroft on the 4:30 train for Kamloops, where they were expected to await trial at the spring assizes.
| Perhaps one of the most important events in the year's work was the surrender to me by the Indian chiefs of Moses Paul and Paul Spintlam, the two Indian outlaws, on the Buonaparte reserve, north of Ashcroft ... The suspects were pursued unsuccessfully for months by an armed posse. About the middle of November, 1912, I summoned together three Indian chiefs at Clinton. I appealed to them through a sense of justice and to their consistent belief in Christianity which I knew was implanted in their hearts by their missionary priests. The persuasion used was successful. They promised to take the suspects in and to send for me when they got them, which they did. I mention this episode as it might be useful, should a similar occurrence ever arise. |
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It seems likely, however, that the Shuswap and Lillooet Chiefs had mixed feelings as to what had occurred. The forces which had combined to persuade them to turn Paul and Spintlum over to the authorities were varied, but were likely more practical in nature than the "sense of justice" and Christian sensibilities cited in Cummiskey's report. No doubt the Chiefs were growing tired of police interference in their communities, and they had reportedly been threatened by either Cummiskey or the BC Provincial Police that their "dignities" as Chiefs would be rescinded if they did not cooperate. Moreover, the Chiefs may have believed the capture of Paul and Spintlum to be inevitable, and may have assessed that the men's best chance for survival lay in cooperation with provincial authorities.
Negotiating legal representation
In negotiating the surrender of Spintlum and Paul, the Chiefs had secured the province's undertaking that the men would be provided with legal counsel for their trial. Accordingly, BC Attorney General (later premier) William J. Bowser appointed Vancouver criminal lawyer A.D. Taylor to represent the men. But shortly thereafter, the Chiefs approached a Victoria, BC lawyer by the name of Stuart Henderson who -- in Cummiskey's words -- had "dabbled a good deal with Indian cases", asking that he travel to Kamloops to meet with Paul and Spintlum. The Scottish born Henderson, 50, had become a member of the Ontario Bar before moving to British Columbia in 1897. Although he had once worked in the federal Department of Justice for Sir Wilfrid Laurier, and had spent six years as a Liberal member of the BC Legislature (1903 - 1909), he was considered by the Attorney General to be an "agitator" aiming to "baffle the administration of justice in the Province".
Henderson practiced law in Ashcroft, BC between 1898 and 1909, and claimed to have defended nearly all the important criminal cases in the district during that period. He was particularly well known for his work on behalf of Indian defendants. (Henderson would later make a name for himself defending Simon Gunanoot, a Gitksan trapper and merchant from Hazelton, BC who evaded capture for thirteen years following the deaths of two Metis trappers in the Kispiox Valley. Gunanoot was acquitted of the killings in 1920.) To the consternation of both the Attorney General (who vowed he would "not pay Henderson one dollar") and Thomas Cummiskey (who was thereby required -- in the middle of Paul and Spintlum's trial -- to engage in difficult negotiations with the Province regarding payment of Mr. Henderson's fees), Paul and Spintlum retained Henderson as their legal counsel.
Unlike Moses Paul, Paul Spintlum was described in newspaper reports as a physically unattractive man, of medium height and stout build, with a "powerful pair of shoulders" and "unattractive irregular features" rendered worse by a permanent injury to one eye.
In May 1913 the Chiefs became concerned about the prejudicial impact on Paul and Spintlum of being tried in Kamloops. A motion to change the venue was argued by Stuart Henderson in Vancouver on May 12, 1913. The trial was moved to Vernon, where it ran from May 24 - 30. The jury did not agree, eight voting for conviction and four for acquittal. The trial was again moved (this time on a motion of the Crown prosecutor argued in Vernon from June 3 - 5, 1913), and scheduled to take place in New Westminster on June 20, 1913.
Paul and Spintlum, along with ten Indian witnesses, were brought to New Westminster from Vernon on June 21, 1913 by Chief of Police Fernie.
Paul Spintlum's second trial lasted from June 24 - 29, 1913 before Mr. Justice Morrison and a jury at the New Westminster assizes. The Crown Attorney was A.H. MacNeill, KC. The first witness for the Crown was Dr. Ross, who had conducted the post mortem examination on Alexander Kindness. His findings were straightforward: Kindness had been killed by a single bullet which entered in his chest and exited between his shoulders, killing him instantly. Charles Truan was the second witness for the Crown, testifying that on May 3, 1912, while searching for lost horses, he had encountered Paul and Spintlum at 51-chasm, which crosses the Cariboo Road. Next was William George Carson, a member of the posse who had travelled from Clinton to Pollard's ranch on May 3, 1912. Carson, who had lived in the Cariboo all his life, claimed to have known Paul Spintlum for five years, and Moses Paul for ten. Carson's evidence was generally consistent with that of the earlier witnesses. He indicated he had seen "the figure of an Indian" rise up from behind some logs, and that the Indian in question was "fairly tall and had broader shoulders than most Indians". Cross-examined, Carson testified that he knew it was not Moses Paul who did the shooting, and that he thought it was Spintlum, but did not say so at the Coroner's inquest because he didn't see the man's face, and had not been asked the question. James Robertson, a Clinton storekeeper, remembered selling ammunition to Paul Spintlum -- two boxes of "32 specials" -- in August 1911, on the day Moses Paul escaped from the Clinton jail.
Moses Paul's trial ran from July 1 - 4, 1913.
Exhibits in the trial included guns, saddles and three horses (in the words of the New Westminster British Columbian, "all the equipment of a wild west show"), transported by train from the Cariboo to New Westminster.
The Department of Indian Affairs took steps to ensure that Indians who had travelled from the Cariboo and elsewhere to attend Paul and Spintlum's trial (some of whom were to be called as witnesses) were appropriately sheltered. Since both Cummiskey and New Westminster Indian Agent Peter Byrne were busy with the Royal Commission on Indian Affairs (the McKenna-McBride Commission, which ... ), a Mr. J.S. Grant of New Westminster was hired by the Department to look after the witnesses.
Rex vs. Moses Paul and Paul Spintlum
Paul and Spintlum were being tried for the murder of Alexander Kindness (it's not clear what happened to the charges relating to the deaths of William White and Ah Wye). Their preliminary hearing took place in Kamloops from March 11 - 16, 1913.
Broken promises and unpaid legal bills
Cummiskey, writing again to J.D. McLean in Ottawa, observed:
| The case of those two outlaws has created a calamity both for the provincial government and for the Indian Chiefs who are connected with the prisoners. My duty is not a light one viz: to handle the Chiefs and have them prepared to see that it is only right that the law should be carried out if the Indians are convicted. |
The Chiefs declined any reward for their part in engineering the surrender of Spintlum and Paul, and made no attempt to claim the $3,000 in reward money offered by the province. In recognition of this fact, Thomas Cummiskey arranged to have them presented with medals bearing their names and the names of their tribes. Attorney General William Bowser was to join Cummiskey in New Westminster during Paul and Spintlum's trial to award the medals, however the presentation never took place. The Chiefs informed the government they had had a change of heart, and no longer wanted what they described as "blood money". (In 1934, the Vancouver Province reported that the medals were languishing in the possession of the Provincial Archives.)
Although Paul and Spintlum's trial had concluded, Thomas Cummiskey was preoccupied throughout the late summer and fall of 1913 with a number of residual matters. First, there was the matter of Stuart Henderson's legal bill. In January 1913 Henderson had drawn up an agreement with the Chiefs involved in Paul and Spintlum's surrender, by which the Chiefs undertook to pay him $2,500 for his services -- a substantial sum in 1913 dollars. The Chiefs presumed the Department of Indian Affairs would contribute to the cost, and Cummiskey, in turn, had secured promises from provincial government representatives that the province would assist. Nonetheless, throughout the course of the trial and its aftermath, Attorney General Bowser remained steadfast in his refusal to permit any contribution to Henderson's costs, and the bill went unpaid. (Aside from $776 paid by Major Churchill, which he raised by selling his stock and other assets, Henderson's bill was not paid until October 1914, when Conservative Member of Parliament Alfred E. Fripp intervened on his behalf. Noting that Henderson was "an old Ottawa boy", Fripp wrote a series of letters to Deputy Superintendent General of Indian Affairs Duncan Campbell Scott indicating he would be "glad to see [Henderson] get this account paid", and expressing frustration that no progress had been made on this front. Following additional consultation with the Chiefs, the bill was finally paid by the Department of Indian Affairs.)
Even more troublesome from Cummiskey's perspective was a July 8, 1913 petition sent from the Chiefs to J.D. McLean:
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Our chief ground for petitioning you on behalf of these two Indians, is that we the Chiefs were instructed by the Chief Constable that if we could induce the outlaws to surrender that the [sic] would not be hung. On this ground we took action, and when we did locate them, we told them that we had been instructed by the government that if the [sic] would surrender peaceably, that they would get a fair trial and would not be hung.
Now we do not consider that they were given a fair trial, as we have proof that two chief constables instructed one of the chief witnesses how to testify. We the Chiefs who were instrumental in getting these two men to surrender, blame ourselves for getting them in under the conditions we did, and then for the Government not to live up to their agreement. We would like to state that if these two men are punished as the sentence now stands, that we one and all will never assist to capture any Indian again. |
The petition was signed by twenty-six Shuswap and Lillooet chiefs and headmen, including James Retasket ("Tyee Jimmy"), Joe Moses "High Bar Joe" and Major Churchill.
The Chiefs' petition was forwarded by J.D. McLean to the Deputy Minister of Justice, who responded in August 1913 that their request was premature, since Spintlum's appeal was still pending and it was "too soon" to consider the question of clemency for Moses Paul. By late September 1913, Cummiskey was being lobbied hard by the Chiefs in relation to both Mr. Henderson's legal bill and their petition, and was simultaneously receiving aggressive inquiries and requests for update from J.D. McLean in Ottawa. Cummiskey's last communication on the matter was a hand written letter to McLean dated November 19, 1913, in which he undertook to investigate and "report later". Thomas Cummiskey died in St. Paul's Hospital, Vancouver on November 21, 1913 of complications from a chronic duodenal ulcer. He was 55.
Though Spintlum's appeal had been lost, it was clear the Chiefs' July 1913 petition and the arguments on appeal had struck a chord. In November 1913 the Deputy Minister of Justice contacted Duncan Campbell Scott, advising that the Attorney General of British Columbia had been asked to verify the Chiefs' statement to the effect that they had been instructed by the Chief Constable that if they could induce the outlaws to surrender they would not be hanged. The views of the Minister of Indian Affairs were sought as to "the standing of the Chiefs who have signed the petition, and the importance to be attached to their declaration". The Minister of Indian Affairs consulted with his legal counsel and with Lytton, BC Indian Agent H. Graham, who advised that to the best of his knowledge, the promise made was that Paul and Spintlum would "not be shot on surrender". On December 3, 1913 J.D. McLean wrote to the Deputy Minister of Justice conveying Graham's recollection:
The hanging of Paul Spintlum
An appeal was filed by Stuart Henderson, and a motion for a special sitting of the BC Court of Appeal was heard on July 22, 1913. Six days were spent in the Court of Appeal in November 1913 -- possibly in New Westminster. (Spintlum was at this time being held in the Kamloops jail.)
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It does not appear whether the chiefs to whom the promise was made understood the English language or whether the promise was made by a competent interpreter in their own language. Here there is room for misconception and misunderstanding and the Department is disposed to think that even if the promise was as stated by the Agent, that it is not at all improbable that these chiefs understood the promise to mean that these outlaws would not suffer death. It is thought that due weight should be given to this point and that it might reasonably be assumed that the Indians believe the promise as they understood it had been made.
It is the desire of the Department that perfect faith should be kept with the Indians especially in the present position of Indian Affairs in British Columbia and if the question of policy is to enter into the consideration of this case, as suggested by your letter, the Department would like to see the death penalty commuted. |
Paul Spintlum was hanged at the Kamloops jail on December 13, 1913.
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In early 1917 Dominion Parole Officer W.P. Archibald wrote to Duncan Campbell Scott advising that Paul was suffering from tuberculosis, and had been confined to the penitentiary hospital for some time. Noting that "it might prolong his life a few years to have a conditional release", Archibald inquired as to the possibility that the Department of Indian Affairs might provide "oversight".
J.D. McLean responded swiftly that his Department had "no such institution where such oversight could be exercised".
In the event, it was irrelevant. Moses Paul died of tuberculosis on March 16, 1917, attended by BC Penitentiary physician Dr. W.A. DeWolf Smith. Paul's death was registered three times -- once by BC Penitentiary staffer W.J. Carroll, a second time as a "Return of Death of an Indian" by New Westminster Indian Agent Peter Byrne, and a third time -- eight months later -- by Kamloops Indian Agent John F. Smith.
"All my relations."
References
Newspaper reports
1911
1912
1913
