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Show THE LONG WALK AND PEACE 133 through the entire group. The prisoners had no natural defense against the whiteman's diseases to which they were being exposed for the first time. Impure drinking water caused more health problems. There were few who did not have some serious illness. The anger between Navajos and Apaches also increased because of these frustrating problems. At harvest time, when hungry farmers eagerly watched and guarded their crops, fights often broke out between the tribes. Men battled with farm tools, if nothing else was near. In the end, the Apaches were moved south of Fort Sumner, so that the army would be between the two tribes. By the end of 1864, General Carleton had to defend his policies in an open letter to the people of New Mexico. He answered protests about the raids made by Navajo runaways and the high price of food. He also dealt with charges that he had improperly handled the business of supplying the Bosque. His response convinced the New Mexico legislature to support him. But conditions at the Bosque quickly went from bad to worse. The shipment of supplies which had been bought with the hundred thousand dollars granted in July 1864 did not arrive until January 1, 1865. And then it was obvious that someone had cheated the Indians. Many of the goods shipped were of no use at all. Some, such as leather and blacksmith tools, might have been of some use to a few of the People. But nails and scraps of iron were completely useless. Many of the items had been bought at extremely high prices. Officers stated that the entire shipment was worth only about thirty thousand dollars, less than a third of what had been paid for it. General Carleton blamed the Bureau of Indian Affairs for much of the trouble, and, for a time, his views gained support. In May a bitter Superintendent Steck quit. Carleton had long objected to Lorenzo Labadie, the Apache agent, because Labadie had always championed the Apaches' rights, often at the expense of Carleton's plans for the Navajos. So the general used the troubles as evidence against Labadie. He accused the agent of improper and illegal activities, such as the private use and sale of government property. Then he expelled Labadie from the reserve, took former Apache farms, and gave them to the Navajos. Labadie moved his agency just off the reserve, but the Mescalero Apaches did more than sneak across the border to see their agent. On November 3, nearly all of the Apaches left the Bosque for good. |