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Show 62 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. recover. Their camp was surrounded and attacked at daybreak. So sudden and un-expected was it, that no one was awake to give the alarm, and I found quite a num-ber of women shot while asleep beside their bundles of hay which they had collected to bring in. on that morning. The wounded who were unable to get away had their brains beaten out with clubs or stones, while some were shot full- of arrows after having been mortally wounded by gunshot. The bodies were all stripped. Of the whole number buried, one was an old man and one was a well- grown boy all the rest women and children. Of the whole number killed and missing, about one hundred and twenty- five, eight only were men. It has been said that the men were not there-they were all there. On the 28th we counted one hundred and twenty- eight men, a small number being absent for mescal, all of whom have since been in. I have spent a good deal of time with them since the affair, and have been astonished at their continued unshaken faith in me and their perfectly clear understanding of their mis-fortune. They say : " We know there are a great many white men and Mexicans who do not wish us to live at peace. We know that the Papagos would not have come out after us at this time unless they had been persuaded to do so.' 7 What they do not understand is, while they are at peace and are conscious of no wrong in tent, that they should be murdered by government arms, in the hands of Papagos and Mexicans. One of the chiefs said : " I no longer want to live ; my women and children have been killed before my face, and I have been unable to defend them. Most Indians in my place would take a knife and cut his throat, but I will live to show these people that all they have done, and all they can do, shall not make me break faith with you so long as you will stand by us and defend us, in a language we know nothing of, to a great governor we never have nor never shall see." About their captives they say : " Get them back for us; our little boys will grow up slaves, and our girls, as soon as they are large enough, will be diseased prostitutes to get money for whoever owns them. Our women work hard and are good women, and they and our children have no diseases. Our dead you cannot bring to life, but those that are living we gave to you, and we look to you, who can write and talk and have soldiers, to get them back." I will assure you it is no easy task to convince them of my zeal when they see so little being done. I have pledged my word to them that I never would rest- easily, day or night, until they should have justice, and just now I would as soon leave theArmy as to be ordered away from them, or to be obliged to order them away from here. But you well know the difficulties in the way. You know that parties who would engage in murder like this, could and would ( and have already) make statements and multiply affidavits without end in their justification. I know you will use your influence on the right side. I believe, with them, this may be made either a means of making good citizens of them and their children, or drive them out to a hopeless war of extermination. They ask to be allowed to live here in their old homes, where nature supplies nearly all their wants ; they ask for a fair and impartial trial of their faith, and they ask that all their captive children living may be returned to them. Is their demand unreason-able? Unless some action is taken to convince them that Government means kindness and justice, and they are driven away desperate and disappointed, blinded by ignorance, rage, and superstition, I assure you I could hardly command men to fire on them ; and if I fail to do for them now everything in niy power, I should expect it to be remem-bered against me when I am finally called to account as my gravest offense and my greatest life responsibility. This letter has been hastily written, but not inconsider-ately. You may consider yourself at liberty to use it as' you think best. I am willing for a copy of it to go to the Indian Department. Captain Stanwood will, by this mail, send a full account of the matter direct to division headquarters. If you are able to accomplish anything, I kno\ v you will ;;---; trifv yourself, and y i: r anxiety to do so has already gru- fciiiiui, Yours, very respectfully, ROYAL E. WHITMAN, First Lieutenant Third United States Cavalry. Colonel J. G. C. LEE, U. S. A., Tucson, Arizona Territory. APPENDIX A&, No. 3. Testimony of Dr. Brieslif, United States Army Indian women ravished and then killed Children killed and bodies mutilated by people from Tucson, at Camp Grant massacre, Ari-zona Territory, April 30, 1871. TERRITORY OF ARIZONA, Camp Grant : On this 16th day of September, 1871, personally appeared Conant B. Briesly, who, being duly sworn . according to law, deposeth and saith : I am acting assistant surgeon |