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Show REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 41 amount, so that their planting will not be as extensive this year as I had hoped. I am in hopes that by next year I will bo a'ole to furnish them with sufficient seed, and would also respectfully recommend that the department commander urge the necessity of furnishing the ruder implements of agriculture, as at present their only means of farming are sharpened sticks, and it is wonderful to see with what advantage they use them. They frequently ask for other seed than corn, particularly pumpkins, beans, squashes, and melons. It would probably be well for the Indian Bureau to send an agent to look after the interests of these people. I ask them, " Why are you so poor I" and the answer invariably is, " How can we be otherwise ? We had not much originally, and now we, can get nothing; we do not steal ; we cannot go to the mescal country, as we are liable to be met and killed by scouting parties." I know myself this to be the case, hence they have either to starve or steal, or we must feed them until they can raise enough for themselves. Mrs. Green informed me that when the sick garrison was removed from Camp Goodwin, on account of its unhealthiness to this place, she was carried all the way, ninety miles, over the mountains, on a litter by the Apaches, on their shoulders ; she having been a great invalid at that time. Mrs. Green was much attached to them in consequence. I expect to leave for Camp Grant in a day or two. [ Fourth letter.] CONDITION OF APACHE INDIANS CAMP APACHE, WHITE MOUNTAINS, ARIZONA. CAMP GRANT, ARIZONA TERRITORY, September 18, 1871. Immediately after the massacre of the peaceable Indians at Camp Grant by the citizens of Tucson, ( see Appendix A &, No. 2,) the news was received by the peaceable Apaches on the White Mountain reservation, and nearly all of them, some six hundred in number, under the leadership of Es- cet- e- cela, their chief, fled frightened to the mountains. The evening before their departure a herder, a soldier detailed for that duty, was killed. The only band which remained was Miguel's, numbering about two hundred and seventy- live Indians, under that chief. Colonel Green demanded of Mi-guel the arrest of the murderer ; Miguel replied that he did not belong to his baud. The colonel persisted, and Miguel sent out and had one of Es- cet- e- cela's Indians killed, and parts of the body brought in as testimony that the order was executed. On the arrival of General Crook some twenty- five Indians belonging to Miguel's baud were en-listed as scouts, much against their will as we afterward learned, to operate against the other Apaches. These twenty- five Indians, acting under Colonel Guy V. Henry's orders, had attacked a rancherio within hearing of the garrison at Camp Apache, and killed five Indians of Es- cet- e- cela's band. As I before reported to you, on the evening of my arrival at the reservation, four couriers, arrived from General Crook, at Camp Verde, one hundred and sixty miles distant, from which place they had ridden in three days, with orders to discontinue the enlistment of Indians, the orders having previously been to eulisfc as many as one hundred. Hearing that Es- cet- e- cela was in the mountains near the post, I dispatched his son- in- law, a Mr. Stevens, mail- rider at the post, with a message for him to corne in, a promise of protection, and a suit of clothes. Miguel had been sent for by Colonel Green, some days before. The two chiefs arrived the same afternoon, September 6th, and visited me apart. I 1 old Es- cet- e- cela the war was over, and all offenses must be forgiven. He said the soldier- herder was notr killed by one of his band, but by an Indian from Rio Bonita, sent over by the Indian survivors from Camp Grant massacre to stir them up to war. He complained of Miguel's killing an innocent Indian for it, and afterward for killing five more of his band without cause. We had hard work to reconcile him, but, with the aid of Colonel Green and Mr. Cooley, . the interpreter, we succeeded. The chiefs met, stood some forty feet apart, eyeing'each other, with arms folded haughtily. The interpreter stepped up, and, leading Miguel forward, put his hand into the hand of Es- cet- e- cela, when they first shook hands and then embraced. The next day we opened the boxes of clothing, coats, pantaloons, manta~ ( sheeting,) calico, thread, needles, awls, handkerchiefs, and blankets, and placing the m in charge of Mrs. Colonel Green, who has been a warm friend of the Indians, arranged the Apaches in bands and families, and, taking a careful list of the names of the heads of all the families, with the number of their wives and children, Mrs. Green distributed to every one, three, hundred and sixty- two persons all told, a suit of good clothing. Without being solicited to do so, the chiefs all dressed in coats and pantaloons, and many more young men requested pantaloons and coats than we could supply. WT hen all had |