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Show ! i REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 117 toward quenching any further desire to defy the authority of the Government. I appreciate the fact that from a strictly technical point of view such treatment of offenders is anomalous; but, for that matter, so is the reservation system under which the Navahos have been brought up to the present time. At the worst, wha$ I have here recommended would be hut a iogical evolution from the existing situation. On December 11, 1905, Superintendent Perry reported, further, that since the prisoners had been brought in he had held a council with a large number of Indians from Chin Lee and the Black Moun- . tains, at which it was disclosed that two or three years ago an Indian by the name of Do Yal Ke, who stayed with his following at Chin Lee during the summer season and in winter in the IZeams Canyon division of the Black Mountains, " held up " former Superintend-ent Burton, of the Moqui Indian School, and demanded of him cer-tain things, which it seems he granted them; that Do Yal Ke was at Ch'in Lee when the recent trouble occurred and held a council with the Indians, in which he told them about his experience in holding up Superintendent Burton and advised them to capture Superintend-ent Perry and compel him to grant their.request as Burton had done, adding that if'Perry refused they might just as well murder him, for otherwise' troops would surely follow. Superintendent Perry said that on learning these facts concerning Do Yal Re's con-duct he had him arrested, and recommended that he be sent with the other prisoners to Alcatraz &land and severely punished. The Office recommended this course in a letter of December 22, and the seven renegade Navahos were accordingly sent under military guard to the Alcatraz prison and entered upon their penal terms. On May 8, ,1906, S. M. Brosius, agent of the Indian Rights Asso- I ciation, wrote to the Office that he had learned that five of the pris-oners had been in the hospital under treatment, and suggested that should it be found on investigation by the military authorities in charge of the prison that the damp climate of San Francisco harbor was impairing the health of the Indians the7 be sent to a more suitable climate to serve out the remainder of their sentences. Tliis request was reported t o the Department. an May 19 with recom-mendation for an investigation. In answer the Assistant Secretary of War transmitted, under date of June 19, this report from the surgeon at. Alcatraz Island concd~liingt he physical condition of the Navaho prisoners : ! These Indians, coming from a dry, salubrious climate to a damp and chilly one, are extremely liable to contract respiratory and rheumatic affections. The l?tter class of disease is prevalent around San Francisco Bay, and it is feared that these men mill contract it, as several have shown slight premonitory , ~ymptoms. For this reason it is believed that the climate of Arizona or Kew tvfexfco would be a preferable Dlace for confinement. I |