USA > Arizona > Arizona, prehistoric, aboriginal, pioneer, modern; the nation's youngest commonwealth within a land of ancient culture, Vol. I > Part 6
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Though representatives of almost all western tribes are to be found among the pupils of the Phoenix Indian Industrial School, one of the largest three in the Union, Pimas there predominate in number. This school was started at McDowell in 1890, transferred to Phonix the following year and again changed, in 1892, to permanent quarters a few miles north of the city, where, upon 160 acres of ground, expensive buildings have been erected and where facilities have been provided for the education of the hand, as well as for the development of the mind. Tremendous influence for the better has been exerted within the Arizona tribes by the return of students from this school, though the influence of the older Indians still is felt in the tribal governments.
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THE CHRISTIANIZED PAPAGO
The Spanish padres found the Papago the most docile of all the tribes of the northern Sonora region. Unlike their generic brothers, the Pima, the Papago seemed to find agreeable the teachings of Christianity, which at a very early date became mixed with their own tribal cults. Their record is marred only by the rebellion of 1751. The tribe readily submitted itself to the direction of the white man, built mission churches, tilled the soil and dug in mines.
The origin of the name years ago generally was accepted as referring to the christianization of the Pima, for "Papa" is the Spanish word for Pope. With more thorough inquiry of later years there has come dispute of this understand- ing. Hodge has found that the Indians call themselves "Pa-pah-o-o-tam." The latter half, more nearly pronounced as "oh-oh-tahm," is the name applied by the Pima to their own tribe and people. Papavi or papabi is the Papago name for hean. Beans constitute the principal food of the Papagos, who are said to have been known to the Mexicans as Pimas Frijoleros. The Papago early adopted the Mexican custom of wearing hats and, unlike the neighboring Pimas and Mari- copas, cut their hair, somewhat in the Quaker style. Within Arizona they now number about 5,000.
The San Xavier reservation, by executive order, was withdrawn from entry for the benefit of the Papago Indians in 1874. In 1890 allotments in severalty covering 41,000 acres within this reservation were made to 360 resident Papagos. Further allotments later were made for the benefit of the Indians at various set- tled points through Pima and Pinal counties. A material addition to the Papago reservation area was the grant of a township of land on the Gila River below Gila Bend. The tribe, though living largely by agriculture and grazing, has nomadic sections, to be found in camp around almost any spring between Tucson and the Gulf of California.
The Papago, despite the early axiom, is a good Indian, even when alive. Generally he is honest and he will work even beyond the necessities of driving hunger. As a whole the tribesmen have been much more orderly than a similar number of whites. They have been charged with cattle stealing and probably in truth, but the losses in reality have been small on this account. About 1883, Sheriff Bob Paul tried to arrest a Papago in the village of Coyote in the Baboqui- vari hills. He found his man, who was wanted for horse stealing, but Paul in turn was seized by the Indians and held prisoner, while a frightened deputy sheriff fled to spread a wild tale of Indian insurrection. A posse of about twenty-five was raised at Tucson, to find on arrival near the village that Paul already had been liberated. Though the Indians gathered in force, Paul, who united good common sense with an extraordinary degree of bravery, managed to avoid a conflict and to secure from the Indians a promise to bring into Tucson the men who had caused the trouble, a promise that was faithfully kept.
In the summer of 1914 materialized a claim for an undivided half interest in 3,284 square miles of land, mainly in Pima County, on the basis of quit-claim deeds by Papago Indian chiefs, representing seventeen villages. The grantee was Robert F. Hunter of New York, now deceased, whose heirs are seeking acknowl- edgment of their claims and possession of property estimated worth $1,000,000. It was alleged that the Indians were citizens of Mexico at the time of the Gadsden purchase and thus had property rights they were privileged to transfer.
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The Papago make only a fair grade of pottery and their baskets, generally of cactus fiber, are not as good as those of the Pima. The Sobaipuri, frequently mentioned in early Spanish chronicles, were a branch of the Papago. The Indi- ans tell that the Sobaipuri once were a cliff-dwelling people and that the merging with the valley Papago was wholly due to the depredations of the Apaches. This merging, according to the Rudo Ensayo, happened in 1772, bands of the Indians leaving the San Pedro valley to find new homes around Santa Maria Soamca, San Xavier and Tucson. The tribe is recorded as having been the most warlike of all the Pima.
According to legends heard by Missionary Cook, the Papago and Pima, then a numerous people, came into the present land of Arizona about the year 350, driving hence the Moqui, or the people of whatever name that lived in the ancient houses on the Gila. About the first experience had by the Pima with Spaniards other than in passing expeditions, happened when a number of the tribe were invited to join with the Papago in a feast at Tucson, where they ate beef for the first time and enjoyed it greatly. This happened at some indefinite time, about 100 years ago. Some time later with the Pima took refuge Chief Harab-n-mawk (Raven Hair) of the Papago, who had refused to furnish warriors for an expedi- tion against the Apache. The Mexicans pursued from Tueson and the Papago and his Pima hosts all fled into the bleak mountains, while the Mexicans occupied the villages and ate up the Indians' supplies. Finally, when there was no more food on the mountains, the Papago chief and his two sons surrendered themselves and were hanged. Then the invaders returned to Tucson.
A great battle is said to have been fought by Papago penned up by a superior Apache force on the great Baboquiveri Peak. Starvation imminent, the Papago warriors killed their women and children and then themselves, some of them leaping to death from the cliffs. A great battle was fought also in the neighbor- hood of Arivaca, where there has been found a heap of skulls.
For years the Papago children have had instruction from Catholic nuns, established in the old priests' house at the San Xavier mission. As early as 1866, C. H. Lord, Deputy Indian Agent at Tucson, told of the engagement of Mrs. William Tonge, an American woman of experience, to open a school at San Xavier. Rev. Howard Billman, a Presbyterian missionary, opened an Indian school at Tucson January 3, 1888. The school, now supported wholly by the church, has several hundred attendants.
THE MARICOPA, AN IMMIGRANT TRIBE
The Maricopa, who occupy the western end of the Pima and Maricopa reserva- tion, ethnologically have nothing whatever in common with their neighbors and friends, the Pima, whose country they were permitted to enter following a defec- tion from the Maricopa parent stem, the Yuma, about 1800, though the journey up the Gila was one of at least a seore of years, the band driven further eastward by continued attacks by the main body of the tribe. It is probable that the Pima, who at the base are a peaceful people, were pleased at such an accession of proven fighting men to guard their western frontier against the Apache and Yuma. This would seem to have been good logic, for at least thrice the Yuma were repulsed in serious forays into the Pima country. This alliance never has been disturbed, though there are few instances of intermarriage and each tribe has
"LO, THE POOR INDIAN," MOJAVE
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maintained its own language undiluted and its own peculiar customs. Till only a few years ago the Maricopa burned their dead and, incidentally, heaped upon the funeral pyre about all the goods of the late lamented, abandoning or burning the residence of the deceased as well. While wasteful, this custom had many features of hygienic. value.
The Painted Rocks on the Gila River on the old Yuma road have puzzled antiquarians about as much as did the famous stone inscriptions noted in Pick- wick Papers. As good an explanation as any was that given thirty years ago by Chas. D. Poston, who before that had inquired into the matter. He-then told that the markings on the stones were made several years after a disastrous Yuma war expedition of 1857, which was ambushed in an arroyo near Maricopa Wells and practically annihilated. This was about the last trouble between the Yumas on the one side and the Pimas and Maricopas on the other and it was told a treaty of peace thereafter was signed on the rocks, which were made a boundary monu- ment marking the "spheres of influence" of the parties to the treaty.
Lieutenant Whipple, in October, 1849, wrote of the start from the Colorado of a large war party of Yumas, which, on the 30th, a short distance up the Gila, met and fought a Maricopa band that had harried the Yuma borders. In 1851, Bartlett told of seeing in Ures a deputation of Maricopa Indians, there to com- plain to the Mexican authorities over incursions of Yumas and Apaches. Henry Morgan, an Indian trader who lived long among the Pimas and Maricopas, claimed to have led the latter at the time of the last Yuma raid and told that the invaders lost 350 warriors. While the Maricopas had a few guns, most of the fighting was done with clubs, after the first few arrow flights. For years there- after skulls and bones were thick on the ground of the affray, near Maricopa Wells.
"Maricopa" is the Pima name. The tribal designation is "Pipatsje." Up to a late date the tribe decreased rapidly, having, like the Ynma, suffered from contact with the worst element of the pioneer whites. It is probable that forty years ago the Maricopa numbered about 1,000. This number has decreased until less than 300 are gathered near the junction of the Salt and Gila Rivers, a dozen miles southwest of Phoenix, where, under intelligent direction, the Indians are maintaining themselves in decent fashion by agriculture, with an assured water supply from Salt River.
INDIANS OF THE COLORADO RIVER
The largest of the Yuman tribes is the Mojave, the dominant aboriginal people of northwestern Arizona. The tribe numbers about 1,500, mainly scattered along the Colorado from Fort Mojave to Parker, though included within the total are fifty at the San Carlos agency and 175 on the Camp MeDowell reserve. The latter two seem to be descendants of the branch originally known as Yavapai. This tribe has decreased in number without doubt. In 1775 Garcés estimated the Mojave at 3,000 souls. As early as 1865 the Mojave were given a separate reser- vation on the Colorado, though the establishment of the Colorado River reserva- tion on the present lines seems to date from May 15, 1876.
The Mojave may be considered, physically, the highest type of southwestern Indian. Relatively he is industrious, cultivating small patches of bottom land where irrigation can be had from the river's spring rise, or working on the
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surface around the mines. It is an old observation of prospectors that "there is no windlass man like a Mojave." In the early days the Mojave appeared to be hostile or friendly according to the way he was treated by the white visitors. Nearly all the official parties, both Spanish and American, seemed to have met with welcome and assistance, but some of the early trapping and prospecting parties had hard experiences in the Mojave country. The tribe has a chieftain- ship hereditary in the male line. Chief Iritaba was taken to Washington in 1863 in company with a Pima chief, and shown the wonders of the white man's capital. It is understood that both dignitaries when they returned were considered con- scienceless liars and that no real benefit in the way of respect for the white men resulted from the expense incurred.
It is probable that the Mojave will remain tribally distinct and prosperous, for the Indian Bureau is working on extensive plans for their benefit, including the irrigation of a large tract near Parker, whereon the Indians are to be placed in family groups under the best of conditions that will assure prosperity and independence.
The Yuma, living along the Colorado around the mouth of the Gila, have their history elsewhere told, for they were very troublesome indeed both to Span- iards and Americans. Till decadent through disease, they were considered physi- cally superior to most of the other tribes of the Southwest and were noted for bravery and hardiness. Unlike the other warlike tribes, they had permanent villages, from which only rarely did they depart on extended excursions. In 1853 their number was estimated at about 3,000. The census of 1910 found only 655 listed with the superintendent of the Fort Yuma Indian school. In 1873-75, on the Fort Verde reservation, were about 500 so-called Yuma-Apaches, con- sidered a mixture of Yuma, Mojave and Yavapai, inhabiting the desert of central Arizona east of the Colorado. After removal to the San Carlos reservation they numbered 352. The word "Yuma" is said really to come from a native term that means "son of a chief," interpreted by an early priest. The tribal name is "Kavichan" or "Cuchan."
The Yuma, given a reservation on the California side of the Colorado, lately have been enriched by the building through the reservation of a great Reclama- tion Service canal, headed at Laguna dam. After each of 809 Indians had been allotted ten acres of good irrigable land, the balance of the reservation was sold to white settlers, the proceeds to be held for the benefit of the tribe. Like the generality of Indians, the Yuma hardly appreciate the advantages they have been given to amass wealth by the sweat of their brows. Rather preferred is the abo- riginal method of planting corn, beans, pumpkins and melons in the river ooze, as the spring flood is declining. Still, much is being done for the tribe, which is considered on the up-grade. The old military post of Fort Yumas has been transformed into an Indian school.
HUALPAI-HAVA SUPAI-CHIMEHUEVI
One of the decadent tribes of Arizona is the Hualpai of Yuman stock, which occupies a reservation, granted January 4, 1883, of 782,000 acres, northward from Peach Springs on the Santa Fe railroad, to the Colorado River. The Indians, like the Mojave, by no means confine themselves to their reservation, but find employment or hunt almost anywhere in northwestern Arizona. They
HAVA-SUPAI AGENCY IN CATARACT CAÑON
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were reckoned among the savage tribes at the time of the coming of the white man and were guilty of frequent depredations upon passing emigrants and pros- pectors. For many years, however, they have been pacific. It is possible that the limit of decrease has been reached, for about eighty children are being cared for at Truxton Cañon, where the health of the pupils is being given especial attention. The reservation as a whole offers little opportunity for farming and the Indians have little industrial ability.
The Hualpai is an interesting Indian from the very fact that he has held most strongly to his aboriginal superstitions. Till wood became scarce and valuable, the dead of the tribe were cremated and the house of death was burned. This custom of destroying the wickiups of brush was extended to a number of neat frame houses that had been built for the tribe by the Government. It is probable the relatives exulted in thus furnishing the spirit an exceptionally fine mansion on high. Annually there is a "big cry," at which the year's dead are collectively remembered. At the end of this four-day function in past years has been held a snake dance, in some ways similar to that of the Hopi. But the snakes, rattlers all of them, meet with a very different fate, for, instead of being released on the plain, they are tossed into a blazing pile of willow branches and burned to ashes, which are then scattered.
The Havasupai (People of the Blue Water) is a small Yuman tribe, with a diminishing strength of only about 150 members. The tribe has a reservation of 38,400 acres, set aside in 1880, embracing mainly some rich lands in the bottom of the gorge of Cataract Creek, near the Grand Canon. The Havasu proudly claim to be the original Apaches and their legends tell of entrance to the cañon from occupancy of the region between the Little Colorado and San Francisco Mountains, wherein are scattered the ruins of many small Indian settlements. It is probable that to them should be credited the occupancy of a number of curious caves found in the lava fields below the San Francisco peaks. They also culti- vated a number of small patches of land in subordinate gorges of the Colorado Cañon below El Tovar, particularly at Indian Gardens, below which are to be found the remains of an aboriginal aqueduct.
The floor of the narrow canon below the great springs at the agency has been cultivated with diligence by the tribe, which has fields of corn, beans, pumpkins and melons and which, a few years ago, had more than local renown for the peaches raised. It is told that the first peach trees brought into the valley were the gift of none other than John D. Lee, who fled from Utah after the Mountain Meadow massacre and who hid himself for parts of seven years among these Indians.
There was devastation in the valley, however, on the last day of 1909, when a wall of water swept down the ordinarily dry canon, ten feet deep, and swept away the agency buildings, the school house and almost every hut, beside devas- tating the fields and destroying the irrigating ditches. It happened that most of the people were away in the hills at the time and so the death loss was small. Agent J. E. Coe and the reservation employees made their way from the roof of the agency building into an enormous cottonwood tree and from its limbs watched the boiling waters tear away their former home and all other evidences of human occupation.
A number of years before this an enterprising company tried to build a rail-
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road into Cataract Canon, power to be furnished from three wonderfully scenic falls below the Indian village, but failed after expenditure of more than $100,- 000. If the project had succeeded, Yosemite would have had a strong rival for the favor of the tourist, for the Arizona valley lias marvelous scenic beauty, espe- cially around three waterfalls in the creek that springs fresh from the cañon bed at the agency.
The Chemehuevi, only about 300 in number, comprise a Shoshonean family, found in the Colorado Valley within the Mojave country, north of Bill Williams Fork. They generally seem to have been well affected in their relations with the whites and with their neighbors the Mojave.
The Cocopah, so often named in the early Spanish chronicles, now number only about 800 and have their home in the Colorado Valley, south of the Arizona line.
CHAPTER IV THE SPANISH CONQUEST
Cabeza de Vaca-Juan de la Asuncion, First Traveler in Arizona-Marco de Niza and the Seven Cities-Coronado's Expedition-Alarcon's River Exploration-Nen Mexican Settlement.
There seems to be a general understanding, though in error, that the first white man to penetrate the land that now is Arizona was Cabeza de Vaca (Eng- lish-"Cow's Head). Some historians have sought to show that he traveled at least as far north as El Paso and thence westwardly through New Mexico and Ari- zona. IIis own narrative of his trip might be distorted to support such a conten- tion, but it is vague at the best, a veritable hodgepodge tale of hardship, starvation and dangers. Of one thing, however, there is certainty : the party of Cabeza de Vaca undoubtedly was the first of Europeans to make the journey across the North American continent as far northward as the Rio Grande.
Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca was Treasurer and Alguacil Mayor (Chief Con- stable) in the ill-fated expedition of Governor Panfilo de Narvaez, Governor of Cuba, who had been sent with a Spanish royal warrant to conquer and govern the provinces that extended from the River of Palms to the Cape of Florida on the mainland. The start was from Cuba in March, 1528, with five vessels and 600 men. Bad luck or bad management, possibly both, seemed to be unbroken from the beginning.
After the historic march along the Gulf Coast, 247 survivors were crowded into five roughly constructed barges, which, September 20, put out to sea from Appalachicola Bay, without knowledge of navigation on the part of any of their steersmen, the only hope being to reach the Spanish settlements in Mexico. The mighty flood of the Mississippi was passed safely, but in November a couple of the frail barques were cast ashore on a sandy island on the coast of what is now eastern Texas. Of eighty who landed, sixty-five perished during the succeeding winter, which was spent on what was given the most appropriate title of "Island of Ill Fate." The narrative tells that, "Five Christians quartered on the coast were driven to such extremity that they ate each other up, until one remained, who being left alone there was nobody to eat him." In the end only de Vaca's party survived.
For several years Cabeza de Vaca practically was held in slavery, though he gained some reputation among the Indians as a medieine man. He became a trader, penetrating inland as far as fifty leagues, his stock in trade mainly sea shells and cockles. He finally escaped from what appeared to have been loose bondage to the coast Indians, in company with Andrés Dorantes, who had been one of the captains of Narvaez, Alonzo del Castillo Maldonado and Estevan, some- Vol. 1-4
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times called Estevanico (Little Stephen), the last a Barbary Moor of negroid type, slave to Dorantes.
The narration as printed in Spain in 1542, written necessarily from memory, gives only a vague idea of direction, save that the men were striving to reach Spanish settlements, which they knew existed somewhere off toward the southwest. It would appear that they penetrated about the center of Texas, then struck further south to the Rio Grande at its big bend and thence almost westwardly through what now are Chihuahua and Sonora till finally, in April, 1536, after passing the Rio Yaqui, they encountered a scouting party of Spaniards under Diego Alcarez. This was at a point probably 200 miles south of what now is Arizona. Even then trouble was not over, for it appears that the refugees had difficulty in saving their kindly native guides from the Christians, "who sought to rob them and to make slaves of them." Finally, safety and comparative com- fort were found on reaching Culiacan in the present Mexican state of Sinaloa, where Melchoir Diaz, a humane and energetic official, was captain of the province. The main difficulty experienced by Cabeza de Vaca and his companions in resum- ing contact with civilization at first was that they could bear no clothing nor could they sleep except on the bare floor.
The leader then returned to Spain, which he reached in August, 1537. There- after he was honored by being made Governor of a settlement on the Rio de la Plata in South America. Though returned to Spain under charges, he appears to have lived through a comfortable old age.
Dorantes remained in Mexico and later was heard from in an unsuccessful attempt to raise an exploring party into the land farther northward than that through which he had journeyed. Of Estevan, however, much more remains to be told.
SMALLPOX AND OTHER PLAGUES
Before dismissing the subject of Narvaez, it should be told that he seems to have been responsible for the introduction of smallpox into New Spain, not in proper person, but through a negro servant he had brought from Spain to Vera Cruz on his unfortunate expedition of 1520, when sent by the King to displace Cortéz. In Mexico before the days of the Spaniard had been known a plague, the matlazahuatl, which may have been a form of yellow fever, and which is known to have carried off hundreds of thousands. But it attacked human beings on the highlands, as well as along the coast, and is said to have been the cause of one of the great migrations to the southward. In the unsanitary, communistic life of the Indians, of whatever sort, smallpox found for its spread an ideal field. Accord- ing to Padre Torribio, the disease had destroyed half the population of Mexico. It was believed to return in especial virulence every seventeen years. It has been epidemic ever since. So common has the disease become and so little feared among the Mexicans of the Arizona border that women frequently expose their infants to it, that they "might have it over with" early in life. The plague never has been a really serious one among the Americans of the Southwest, but, at different times, almost has wiped out a number of Indian tribes and communities. Vaccination was ordered by the King in 1805, and Pattie is said to have vaccinated a large number of Spaniards and Indians during his stay on the Californian
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