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Murdered by an Eskimo

Frank Boyd, a Miner on Kotzebue SD., Shot by a Cape P. of W. Eskimo

The Murderer Still Unpunished.

Last summer, Frank Boyd engaged three or four natives from the Kotzebue Sd. and three or four natives from the Kotzebue Sd. and Cape P. of Wales tribes to help tow his mining outfit and supplies up the Noon-a-tok river. After a few days absence, As-ser-uk the C. P. of Wales native, assisted by one or two Sd. natives, returned the boat and supplies to Mr. Samms, the missionary at Cape Blossom, reporting that Boyd had accidently shot himself. By threatening the natives with him, he forced them to substantiate his story. But it soon became known that As-ser-uk had murdered him. Borrowing Boyd's rifle under pretense of shooting a spotted seal, he deliberately shot him. As-ser-uk now claims that the miner had threatened to kill him on the day previous and that he shot him in "self defense." But this flimsy excuse is not believed even by his own people, among whom he has always been known as a "born" liar and thief. They attribute his crime to his inborn depravity, while the Sd. natives think he wished to avenge the death of his father, who was among the thirteen killed by a whaler in 1877.

It was a great surprise to the natives here and at other settlements along the coast, that the U. S. Cutter, evidently considering it out of its line of duty, made no effort to investigate this murder or arrest the murderer, when anchored here in Sept. and June.

Source: The Eskimo Bulletin, Prince of Wales, Alaska, July 1898