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Show THE ZUNI INDIAN OUTPACE. An Appeal to the t.overnment for Juttlre From Colomdo Teople. Wasiiini.tov, Sept. 12. A claim for damages caused by Indian doprodalions to citizens of Colorado, of comparative recent date, has been tiled with tlio see-I see-I vetary of the interior. The onVne is I apparently a ipi'ilo nggravatciS olio, made all the more so by the panicipa-tion panicipa-tion of the government in it. Tho circumstances cir-cumstances are these: Washington. Sept. 4, 1SH0 Hon. Henry M. Teller. I'nitod States Senate, Washington, 1. C. Sin: F have the honor to invite your attention to tho following statement of facts: In May, INSU, David Hanna and James A. Somorvillo of Ouray, Colo., wore traveling through tho southern part of New Mexico to Colorado with some horses and mules and other personal per-sonal property, and while camped for the night on the Zuui reservation, one of their aniumls escaped. Next day they discovered it among some belonging to the Indians, and took possession of It. That led to nn nlfray with the Indians, during which some of the Indians were killed and wounded, nml resulted in tho whites throe in ail having to take refuge at the ltox ranch, where they wore finally rescued from the fury of the savages by troops from Fort Wingale. Meantime, the Indians got possession of the stock and everything the white men had except the clothes they wore and their arms. The three men Hanna, Somervillc nml Davis (Davis being an cuip'ovo) were taken as prisoners to Fort Vin-gate Vin-gate and treated wilh great severity by the militarv authorities at that post, upon a fabricated charge that they were engaged in running oil horses belonging belong-ing to the Indians when tho light originated. orig-inated. Finally the military turned the prisoners over to tho civil authorities authori-ties of Valencia county, New Mexico, and upon investigation of th matter they were entirely exonerated. Still the Indians had their stock and other property, and they applied to the Indian agent, one Williams, to have It restored to them. He issued an order to tho Indians to surrender tho prop-; erty. but they rofused to surre-idcr It to anybody but the od'ners. The uext agent, MoCluro, recommended that the militarv be called upon to tako it from the Indians, but tho war department declined de-clined to authorize use of troops for that purpose. Then a third Indian agent was sent to coax the Indians to give up tho property, and finding that could not be accomplished, he reported to the department that the men were running off stock, were entirely in the wrong, but that they could with safety go on the reservation and recover the. property. So (he matter stands. Tho Indians have had the property, ever since the 8th of May, lftHt), and possibly It is val-veless val-veless now. They have by neither written nor unwritten law any right or claim upon it. and yet the owners are kept out of their lawful property in this manner because they ueclino to go on the reservation and "be massacred, which Is what the course would result in, its they believe, lienor) tho appeal to the government to having hiir property, prop-erty, or its equivalent in nit B iy, given by the Indians at once,. |