Show DAYS ARE NUMBERED COCOPAH INDIAN TRIBE IS FACING FAC-ING RACE EXTINCTION Picturesque People of Arizona Yielding Yield-ing to the Pressure of the White Man Upon His Former Domains It Is tho samo old story the aboriginal aborig-inal race disappearing before the onward on-ward progress of his white brother This has been markedly true In America Amer-ica whero each year has seen a les i sonlng of tho ranks of tho Indian I tribes who originally Inhabited tho I land The Cocopnhs of Arizona have been no exception to this rnlo They are n dying race Perhaps It will bo another century before tho last of the rnco will juccurnb but their extinction is Jeemed Inevitable This tribe Is ono of the many Indian families that had their origin In Old Mexico In proAz too days and were afterward driven northward aa tho Spanish power gradually grad-ually expanded their final settlements being within tho borders of tho mod srn Mexican state of Sonora and what sow constitutes southwestern Arizona along tho banks of tho Colorado river Kor many years past but Httlo had been heard of tho Cocopahs by tho outsldo world until tho Colorado river burst its banks cut for Itself a new channel through the Imperial valley and created Salton Sea Then It was I that the engineers of the Southern Pacific were at their wits ends to find laborers enough to carry out tho rougher work of conquering tho runaway run-away river and forcing It back Into its old channel They finally in addition addi-tion to a largo body of Mexican cholos thought of the Cocopahs and a stronger strong-er braver steadier lot of men wero not to bo found at the ColoradoImperi al works than this remnant ot a once numerous Mexican Indian trlbo They established a village of some 500 souls on tho Colorados banks nine miles below tho city of Yuma where they have not been slow to show what typical typi-cal Cocopah Indian life really Is with all its bright colors gaiety and gambling for tho Cocopnh with all his many good physical and mental qualities Is a born gambler and will stako not only his last cent but his only horse at the gaming table The Indian village extends along tho river bank for nearly threequarters of a mile while others dwell in regular Indian huts of timehonored pattern These huts are constructed of cottonwood cotton-wood poles fixed in tho ground being thatched all over with willow and arrow ar-row weeds Several of the huts aro kept specially for gambling and a good part of tho liberal wages paid them by tho Southern Pacific company com-pany for their hard work at tho Mexican Mex-ican Intake are swallowed up In these Indian gambling hells On Sundays and other holidays the village Is a sight well worth visiting Tho hair of the Cocopahs Is long and black and shiny enough for a mirror In it are stuck variegated feathers of tho eagle and other local birds while their bows aro equally gaudy and artistic Their bows are In purple and yellow and eyor and anon ono In yellow Thus attired and bo spangled with color tho Cocopah bucks and belles of tho village rush about day In and day out old and young men and women all seemingly oblivious of the flight of time or tho seriousness of life absorbed In tho mad whirl of tho fiesta dancing singIng sing-Ing yelling eating and sleeping Yot tho Cocopah as indicated abovo is not a weakling either mentally or physically Ho Is well formed of medium me-dium height and not at all repulsive In tho face Under the right modes of living thero Is so much of solid quality qual-ity in his race that llko tho Indians ol Green Bay WIs who have doublet their numbers within u century they too might perpetuate themselves and Increase their kind in course of tlmo |