Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 137, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 June 1918 — RAIN SAVES INDIAN HANGED BY BANDITS. [ARTICLE]

RAIN SAVES INDIAN HANGED BY BANDITS.

Bear Claw Escape* Death When Water Stretches Rawhide Noose About His Neck. Antlers, Okla.—Bear Claw, an Indian, escaped death by hanging here through a providential rain. He had been suspended from a tree and had been left for dead by a gang of bandits. Rain, however, caused the rawhide to stretch and the Indian was able to Jiberate himself. Bear Claw is one of the highest type of red man. He is educated, owns a cattle ranch in the hills of the old Indian territory, and is the terror of *ll cattle and horse thieves. Recently in pursuit of several of these gentry, who had stolen some of his stock, he chased them until dark, when he was waylaid and captured. The robbers strung him up to the branches of a tree with * rawhide riata. In the darkness the noose was not placed correctly. Expectant of the pursuit of Bear Claw’s friends, and a sudden rain coming up, the thieves hurriedly departed, In the firm belief that the Indian would soon be in the “happy hunting grounds.” But the rain caused the rawhide to stretch and in a few minutes Bear Claw was free. Only a short time before that a bear cornered the Indian in a cul de sac in the Jack Ford Mountains. Bear Claw had no weapon except his beloved tomahawk. Nevertheless, in the scrimmage that followed, the bear was left with a split skull and the Indian without a scratch. He stilil wears a necklace of Bruin’s slaws, though that is not the cause of his name.