Show LA A WORD FOR THE INDIANS tucson new mexico february jtb 1896 I 1 read in the papers or hear ae ac remark there are no good I 1 indians lut dead ones and to me it seems so judt that I 1 must raise my voice in 0 I 1 do not say there are not bad ones but I 1 do say there are stany good ones especially in tribes fbi wa have bave not been contaminated by file X whites hites having had a personal for fifty years with indians of the tribes of W icon inthe sinthe great plains ae bannocks Ban San nocks Sno aies gos miles ban pitches Pah vans Pa heeds Ps hoies pimas aimas panagos Pa Nava joes jaes i caches apaches Mari copas and I 1 can peak fearlessly in their behalf bitte t imey ey are ignorant lazy dirty and in theol war cruel as are all uncivilized races but with all this they have many food trans and some which the whites 1 would do well to copy I 1 reter refer now to 1 C indians in their native condition they f are chester adultery being punished with death as was the case in the early settlement of cache co utah when a squaw who had bad borne a child by a white J mountaineer mountain ier was drowned in the logan river aver by the members of her tribe J among themselves they are honest faett being almost unknown in each tribe though to despoil those of another 38 considered meritorious as being a und kidd of warfare if a family wish to teave their little hut tor for days or weeks chy simply close the entrance and leave a small stick against it as notice that the family are all absent and leave their household effects without fear that any one will enter and steal anything that little stick leaning against the tent clasp is i all the bir bar bolt lock and key needed to make everything safe with us locks and bolts are not sufficient to keep bint burglars lars out of our dwellings dwelling sa r a thief would ask nothing better than to know of a house whose inmates were absent their word is good I 1 have known sn an In dianto travel a hundred miles on toot foot through a desert in order to return a 8 van pan he be had bad previously borrowed and to bring back at a certain time to bus us would any white man do that MW I 1 think not they are accused of never forgiving on an injury but it if so they never forget a kindness ku Klaess done them they are hospit abba abie and will share their last morsel of food with a needy stranger who app ies to bothem them for shelter if they are a thievish band they will not molest nor teal sted from him while in their camp when he has departed a few miles he may then look out white thieves would wt not wait until their prey bad gone from their dwir shelter but would rob or kill him while he slept beneath their roof if space permitted I 1 could cite many interesting incidents in relation to these things if they are cruel to their enemies are they more so than other races remember the five hour agonizing torture by fire of a negro in texas last year witnessed with glee by thousands of men women and children civilized civil zed whites also the recent burning alive in tennessee of a man and a woman by a white mob the indian has many and grave faults but they are the result of centuries of ignorance and barbarism and they are nut any worse today than the turks and other nations ol of asia and alrica they are charged with waging cruel wars against whites setting on their landshut lands but we know positively mat in nearly every case those wars were initiated by the whites settlers miners or prospectors such was the cause ol of the ute war 0 1853 and the war in sanpete county also those waged wag ed by Victoris and cochise in arizona chiefs who were friendly with the whites until their wives and daughters were outraged by white prospectors while their husbands and fathers were absent exactly similar was the cause of the yaqui war in ia bonora mexico not any civilized nation to day declare war lor for a similar cause in the settlement ot 01 utah in a company of emigrants going to california by the fort hall hail route was a man who swore he would kill a dd d d indian before he got to california and he did so in what whai is now the state of nevada see ing an indian approach the camp at noon he shot him dead just to lo show manhood I 1 suppose next day the indians gathered in force took the man and cruelly killed him allowing the others to go forward unmolested then went forth the cry cr the indians are murdering the whites kill them kill them aill all and in following years scores of innocent people white and red were slain upon that lonely trail victims of one mans wickedness I 1 could adduce many similar examples it if space permitted while some allowance can be made for the gentile Ge world because of their traditions and their ignorance of the origin of the indian we cannot excuse latter day saints who harbor such vindictive feelings knowing as they do that those whom we call indians are of the hou e of f joseph ot of the pure lineage ot of father abranam abraham and tuil heirs to the bies blessings singsi sealed upon him and his posterity forever lo rever and to whom it was said whomsoever blesses thee I 1 will bless and whomsoever curses thee I 1 will curse 0 may the time toon boon come when their punishment shall be over and they i become pure aurea a white and delightsome people as they were after the ministration ot of the savior to them the following clipping from the tucson daily citizen tells its own story unfortunately one only too true SANTIAGO NOT A JOKE BUT A CRIME the tombstone prospector reproduces from the Chicago record a story about the killing of an indian prisoner by two soldiers many years ago at apache tajo the caption of the article is joke on an apache indian As history the tale is a failure the only noih related being the killing oi of the indian by his guards which was a very cowardly act the indian was not a renegade prisoner but as the head of the apache tribe was the guest of the commanding officer the killing ot of the indian was a crime the facts in relation to which are as follows it was early in the aos when indian troubles on the southwestern frontier were subsiding that the officer col J R wrt west it our recollection ol deives us aright in command at apache tejo about nine miles south of silver city sent word to mangus colorado abe the brother inlaw in law ot of cochise Coc bise the head chief of all the apaches then at pinos altos to come down to the post that he wanted to make a treaty with him mangus assented and went to lo apache tejo trusting in the honesty of the invitation the treachery of the indian is a well worn theme but the base deception practiced upon them by the agents of the government are seldom mentioned mangus colorado when he reached apache tejo was thrown into the guard house and a guard stationed over him with orders to shoot the old chief if he made any move in the nights night mangus lay down in his blanket and fell asleep when the guard more of a savage than his prisoner heated his bayonet in the fire and thrust it through a chink in the wall of the guard house and against mangus hip the indian jumped to his feet with a cry of pain when the guard deliberately shot him afterwards they cut off his head and threw it into a privy vault that inhuman act cost the lives of hundreds ot of white people and millions of government money to suppress the insurrection inbur of the I 1 indians n deans which followed it was a costly joke and a shameful act meriting the condign punishment of the perpetrators silver belt |