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Ce ee HA NINL NFS ( | “ust ef them adopted a wait'\-~-sec altitule, And some of the Stateside fugi- tives had grown downright paranoid af- > ter years on the lam. “How do fT know they wan't lock me up and put me back in the Anay?” asked a dichard deserter in New York, When the Clemency Board—headed by an outspoken critic of the war, for- mer New York Sen. Charles Goodell— begins its work, some of the resisters fears may be eased. Gondell’s dovish views will be bolstered by those of other board members, including National Ur- han League director Vernon E. Jordan and the Rev. Theedore Hesburgh, pres- ident of Notre Dame and a former head of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission. ‘inc panelists clearly have some very difficult problems ahead-weighing, for example, time served in jail against time owéd for alternate service, or battle honors against time spent AWOL, And the board con- tained some hawkish members who might oppose leniency, in- cluding retired Marine Corps. Cen. Lewis Walt and James Maye, executive director of farulyzed Veterans of America. Stitl, the Ford plan had the vir- tue of all) compromises. Said Resburgh; “As long as Nixon was in, these guys could rot as far as he was concerned, It's the difference between no chance and some chance.” INDIANS: Blazing Saddles It. didn’t look like much of a border crossing. The sign by the side of the road merely de- manced a 10-cent toll from pass- ing motorists, most of whom did't even stop. But the mili- tant Kootenai Indians manning the roadside picket lines outside Rouners Ferry, Idaho, weren't kidding. After years of frustra- tion trying to deal with Washington, the G7 members of the Kootenai tribe finally lost patience last week and declared war on the United States—by registercd mail. Their challenge was delivered in a letter to President Ford demanding a 128,000-acre reservation, plus as much ne $29 eDinn Fae thal land the anvern. AF Were SLUSERSUZEE SUPE LAGE eS BOREL BES Be ee ment had paid for in 1962 at the rate of 36 cents an acre. To back it up, they threatened to tax white homeowners . and businesses squatting on their ancient tribal lands. Idaho's Gov. Cecil Andrus scut in 60 lawmen to keep the highways clear, but tensions soon eased, The Bu- reau of Tidian Affairs invited tribal lead- ers to begin ucgotiations, and the citi- zens of Bowners Ferry relaxed. “The Indians have told us that they don’t want a svar,” said once 5} mpathetic focal. "They kunw it’s tongh for G7 people to get a re- action from Washin;‘ton, D.C.” 32 eal onan cee MYSTERIES: | The Midnight Marauder Each day, just before dusk, ranchers and farmhands pile inte pickup tricks and fan out across the ralling prairie of northeastery Nebraska. They park mostly on ridges or hilltops, where they can scan the pastures and the narrow roads that wind through them. With rifles and shotguns leaning against their trucks, the men watch nervously. smoking cigarettes and talking with each other over a net- work of citizen's-band radios. Some of the men will stand guard sll night, yet none of them really knows what he is looking for. “I've never scen anything *Warpath": Tribeaman soliciting tolls like this,” says State. Sen. Jules Bur- bach, who has represented Knox County for eighteen years. “Folks are almost - hysterical.” Since last May, more than 100 cattle have been found dead and gruocsomely mutilated in Nebraska, Kansas and Towa. On lol Sunderman farm outside Madison, Neb., a cow was killed with a bluat instriment last June and her udder and sexual organs were cut off. When a veterinarian examined the corpse, he found that alt of the animal's blood had been draincd. On Uyc nearby ranch of Vem Stringficld, a month-old bull calf was clubbed to death. Its blood was drained off, too. and someone cut a hale in the calf’s side, removing the intestines and coiling them neatly next Rumor and ansiety have produced a host of unproved theories to explain the dzarre events. Many people, noting: that seine of the victinss were black, saperst that devotees of witchcraft may have doue the foul deeds. “It contd be same- one setting up a fertility cult of some kind,” says Nichard Thill, a Gennan- studies professor at the University uf Nebraska who teaches wonercdit witch- craft courses, “or it could be someone putling you on. JE they are putting: you on, they are pretty sick.” A few residents report sighting strange ereatures re- sembling bears and gorillas, and at least one fanuver claims that a shiny UFO Ianded in a field where a slaughtered animal was later found. RNustlers: Still others think the killings may be the work of marijuana smup- glers, who suppusedly use searchilight- equipped helicupters to harvest the wild stands of pot known to prow in Ne- braska.. A helicopter often has been seen hovering over the range around the time of a mutilation, and some ranchers swear they have been chased down lonely roads by choppers. Heticupters are also said ty have been used in catde rustling, and some stockmen Uhink the rustlers may be collecting blood and argans as lures for cattle grazing on the open range this fall. As the tension mounted, law-enforce- ment officials held statewide conferences to sift the accounts and to calm the rille- toting catdemen. They orgatized a posse for a fruitless search of the area. The plot thickened when autopsies were conduct ed on some of the dead animals, The doctors reported that mast of the animals had died of natural causes, such as bac- terial infections and kiduey discase, oF from swallowing ofl that had been dropped on the range. Afterward, the medical reports enucluded, the car- wasses Were chewed by predator coy- otes, wolves, buzzards, eagles or even marpics. Cuts: The explination doesn't suit ev- eryone. “Why didw't we notice this sort of thing in other years?” asks une skeptic. “The predators are nat wolves,” insists Senator Burbach. “They are a semido- mesticated, twolepged animal called man.” Noting that many of the cuts seemed to have been done with a blade, Gorden Gruber, an organizer of the pa- trols, remarked: “I've yet io see a coyote who can chew a straight edge.” Some officials are beginning to worry that the real danger is not same ghostly butcher, but the keyed-up vigilantes themselves. After two slugs picreed the canopy of a utility-company helicopter checking power lines, the Nebraska Na- tional Guard ordered its helicopter pilots to cruise cross-country at higher altitudes than usnal—gencrally 2,900 feet instead of 1,000-to avoid being fired upon by frightened ranch hands, “I would hate to think what would happen,” a Guard spokesman told Newsween’s William Schmidt, “if one of our pilots was forced to put dawn a disabled chopper in a pasture at night. Someone might get Med.* Newsweek, September 30, 1974