 The Denison Press
Monday, September 19, 1938 pg. 1 WEALTHY INDIAN BURIED SECOND TIME TODAY; THIS TIME IT'S PERMANENT Pawhuska, Oklahoma, Sept. 19 (UP) - John Stink, a wealthy Osage Indian who preferred his dogs to fellow tribesmen, will be put in his grave today for the second time. A few of the Indians who knew John in his younger days believed he might not stay after they buried him. Almost 50 years ago, with the customary tribal feasting and weeping, they had Old John's funeral, but he came back a few days later to claim his ponies. Some of the older Indians were inclined to believe that the same thing might happen again. Although his oil properties were not as valuable as those of some of the Osages, and although he never was a chieftain or even a medicine man, old John Stink was one of the most famous of modern Oklahoma Indian figures. John's tribal name was John Go-After-Fish. As a young man he fell ill with smallpox and medicine men decided that he was dead. Members of his tribe took John to a mountainside, surrounded his body with rocks, and there left him. But John came back. He demanded his ponies, already divided among other members of the tribe. Fellow tribesmen thought John was a ghost. They refused to have anything to do with him. "John Stink," they said. The name stayed with him the remainder of his life. Other Indians didn't want John's dogs. He took them and set out to live alone. He hated white men as much as he did Indians. He slept in the tree tops, lived and ate with his dogs, and seldom did anyone see John. Old John made a lot of money when oil was struck on his land but he didn't want it. The government built him a cabin but he wouldn't do anything bu sleep on the porch occasionally. A month ago John broke his leg. His condition grew worse. Friday night he died. Today the Indians prepared a feast to be held after John's body is buried in Pawhuska's city cemetery, a white man's cemetery. The principal food on the feast menus will be canned fruit. That was the favorite dish of old John and his dogs. Native American Roots Susan Hawkins © 2024 If you find any of Grayson County TXGenWeb links inoperable, please send me a message. |