While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
The Pima Indians, who live on the
banks of the Gila River (pronounced in Spanish Heela), are the most civilized of any
North-American Indians. They live in houses, manufacture useful articles, and are known
for simplicity of character, peacefulness, and honesty. But they have had their wars. A
battle took place near the "broad trail," which is now sometimes called the
Temple Road. Ursuth was the chief then, and he led his people against a band of 54Apache
Indians. . The Pimas were far outnumbered by Apache warriors, and yet many were killed on
both sides, but, although Ursuth received three wounds, he was able to keep the Apaches
back till the Pima women and children had escaped and reached a place of safety.
The Apaches always began the wars, but the Pimas were never slow
to follow and fight them; they gained the advantage sometimes by making night attacks.
They would come upon the Apaches with clubs and knives, and kill them in their sleep.
Then, like all Indians, the Pimas would carry off as many captives as they could secure.
These they sold in Mexico for sixty to one hundred dollars apiece, being paid in clothes
or live stock. After a battle they would have wonderful dances to celebrate a victory.
When Ursuth grew too old to lead the warriors, Antonio took his
place and became the war chief. Soon afterward there came a year when there was no food in
all the Gila Valley, so the Pimas took their wives with them to the San Pedro River. Here
they made a camp for the women, and the men mounted the few Indian ponies and rode off in
search of food. When they returned the camp and all the women were gone, for the wild
Apaches had stolen in and taken everything. This was a fearful return, but Antonio lost no
time; he and his warriors did not rest till they had overtaken the robbers in the Sierra
Mountains. Here they had a terrible battle, but the Pimas won, and rescued the women who
had been taken captive.
Later Uncle Sam had a fort near where the Pima Indians lived, and
he sent General Alexander, one of his officers, to take care of it.
After a while, in the year 1868, this officer was obliged to make war
upon some Apaches, for they were stealing cattle and horses from Pimas and white people. A
hundred Pima Indians went with General Alexander and helped him make many charges over
hills, rocks, and streams. Their wild ways and brilliant dresses delighted him during his
great march into the mountains.
The Pimas are proud of the fact that they never killed a white
man. They hate the Apaches and make war against them, but have always been the white man's
friend. General Alexander and his wife were great friends of these Indians, but were sorry
to that they believed in many foolish things; Antonio as well as all the rest. They tried
to cure sick people by rapping on rude drums or shaking rattles day and night beside them.
Some of the chief men of the tribe taught the warriors to get drunk at their feasts, and
to play games which made it possible for a few and to gain all the property of the
tribe. They did all sorts of silly things, too, in time of famine, to bring food.
The General often talked to Antonio and told him that there were good white people who
lived far away in the East and that some day they would send a good man to live among the
Pimas. He would not want their land or their money, but would come because he loved the
Indians and wanted to do them good. What he told them would be the truth, and Antonio
could trust him when he came. The chief listened. He believed and waited for the great
teacher to come. Three years went by, then a German named Koch went to live in Arizona. He
was a Christian missionary and he wanted to help
the Indians. The Indian agent built a small school-house for him, and here he began to
teach the Indian children. Louis, one of the boys, could speak Spanish, and with his help
the children taught the Pima language to their teacher. The German word Loch is the same
as Cook in English, and Mr. Cook, as he was called, worked hard till he could speak Pima,
while the Indian boys and girls learned to speak English, though so carefully did they
follow their teacher that these children, born and brought up in America, spoke English
with the same German accent that Mr. Cook had, though he was born far away in Germany.
After this good man had learned to speak the Indian language he
talked to the older Indians. The chief had been waiting for the coming of just such a
teacher and he listened to what he taught, and profited by it.
In 1872 some bad white men went to live on the banks of the Gila
River, above where the Indians had their homes. They, dug deep ditches and drew away a
large part of the river. Of course, their fields and gardens were well watered in this
way, but they cut off a great deal of water from the Indians who depended upon
water from the river to make
things grow in that dry country, where hardly any rain falls More than
half the crops of grain and vegetables were lost in consequence and the fruit-trees were
nearly dead and could not bear fruit. Before these white men came the farms had been
watered by ditches from the river which took water far up on to the land and then
branched, so that water run over each Indian's land and made the soil very rich Some of
the Indians were very angry and loudly complained. but these selfish white men only said:
"The Pimas can not have the whole Gila; if we are above them that 's their bad luck." Some of the young Indians wanted to fight, and I was sent to
see what I could do to arrange matters.
When I first saw him, the chief, Antonio, was a lame old man of medium height,
with a bright intelligent face; his black hair, a little, mixed with gray, hung
in two short braids down his back. His forehead was clear and high, and his dark
eyes, always gazing straight at you,
were steady and searching. With him was hi son, Antonito, about
twenty-five years old. He was stouter than his father, and kept his eyes
always on the ground until we were better acquainted, when he would look into my
face.
We met in the office of the Indian agent, Mr. Stout; and Mr. Cook
was there with Louis to help as interpreter. Mr. Cook told Antonio who I was.
He said he would like to show me his house, so we walked three or four hundred steps to
Antonio's house. It was a like a big beehive outside, of rounded form and twenty or
thirty feet across. The roof seemed to be made of hard clay such as is called by the
Spanish work adobe. One side was square, and a door about four feet high and
three feet across opened into it. As we entered after Antonio we stepped down two feet to
the floor of hard sand and clay. On one side blankets were rolled up and placed against
the wall. Saddles, guns, and belts hung opposite, and between were benches and some two or
three Indian dogs. The Pietas have always lived in villages and built this kind of house,
not as do other Indians, who live in tents. We talked a while but did not stay, for
without any window or chimney the smell and smoke were too much for a white man to stand
very long. On our way back to the office we often stopped to look about us and I saw that
the Gila was a very strange river. It flows rapidly along on its way to the Colorado for
some distance, then the water suddenly disappears and only a river bed filled with sand is
seen, the surface of which is usually dry and white. A little farther on the water appears
again. I thought at first there must be a channel beneath the sand and that the water
followed on underneath, but our engineer told me that the sand, like a sponge, takes up
the water of the Gila for a short distance in several places before it reaches the
Colorado River. After our first talk Antonio opened his heart to me. He told me that
wicked men had led his young people away and taught them bad ways. He said his people had
been on the war-path in the past, but that they loved best to cultivate the land, raise
fruits, and be at peace. "Some of our young men," he said, "now want to
fight these bad white men who steal our water. Louis and Antonito think that way, but Mr.
Cook says `no.'
He is our teacher. The children have been to school to him and as
soon as he knew our
language he told them everything, about the President, the United States Government, and
many other things. They have told me."
Some time after this, a hundred miles west of
Antonio's village, I gathered part of five tribes of Apaches, two tribes of the Pueblos
(those Indians who live in houses), many Mexicans, white citizens, and some American
soldiers. This was to be a great peace meeting, and I wanted Antonio, who was my friend,
to come and tell the other Indians about me. But he was too old and lame, so Mr. Cook and
Louis came, and Antonio, the chief of the Pimas, sent his son, Antonito, to the council in
his place. He said his son would soon have to speak everywhere for the tribe and
"might as well begin now."
At the end of the council the old enemies, Apaches and Pimas,
embraced each other, while tears of joy ran down their cheeks. One strong active warrior
said to Louis: "Look on the man you killed in battle many suns ago." It was
indeed an Indian Louis had left for dead on the battle-field, and seeing him he was
greatly frightened, for he was very superstitious. But when he realized
that this man was quite alive they embraced each other in promise of future good
fellowship. Later Antonito went with me to New York and Washington with a
party of ten Arizona Indians, and the new and startling experiences did much to
bind them forever to the interest of this great peace. I made a second
trip to Arizona later and on my way north visited the old Chief Antonio. Mr.
Cook and Louis with Antonito had returned safely from
the East, and Antonio never tired of hearing about the marvels
they had seen and heard.
When I left with Antonio's consent and Antonito's encouragement,
I took two Indian lads with me, intending to place them in school. At first they were
pleased with the idea of going where Antonito had been, and of seeing the wonderful things
he talked about, but when we reached a stage station beyond Marecopa Wells the boys were
so frightened and homesick that they cried aloud. The interpreter could not quiet them,
but a rough woman in the station, who had said she hated Indians and believed they should
all be killed, was so very sorry for the boys that she began to cry too and begged me not
to take the children away. I sent the lads back to Antonio by the interpreter, but a few
years later Antonito brought these same boys with some others, including his own son, to
the school at Hampton, Virginia, and stayed with them there for about a year, learning all
that he could. He was very lonely so far away from his own people, and was delighted,
"when he found out that my son, whom he had seen in Arizona, was on duty at Uncle
Sam's great fortification called Fortress Monroe, which was less than ten miles from
Hampton.
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