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Show THE NAVAJO AS A NATION 173 The troops took the prisoners to Fort Wingate. Hastiin Tsoh, an old man, was set free. The officer-in-charge thought that all the men should serve at least two years at hard labor and Ba'ililii and Polly should serve ten. The secretary of the interior wanted them held at Fort Huachuca indefinitely. Meleyon, who soon came down with a case of tuberculosis, was set free but confined to the southern part of the reservation. Rumors spread that Bila' Shizhahi, or "Crooked Finger," a Pinyon, Arizona, headman, was planning revenge. Though it was thought he might kill one of the agent's policemen, nothing ever came of the scare. For a while, all seemed quiet after the prisoners were taken away. But soon protests were raised. In the first place, it seemed Ba'ililii himself was guilty only of gambling, rustling, and whiskey-trading. He was not guilty of the more serious crimes that had led to the attack. Also, the Navajos had never been given lawyers. They had been locked up without a trial. They had also been assaulted. Howard Antes of Aneth's Navajo Faith Mission began to work for their release. He was soonjoined by the Indian Rights Association. Though the District Court of Arizona turned down a motion to set them free, all but Ba'ililii and Polly were released in early 1909. In March the Supreme Court overturned the decision, and the two remaining Navajos were home by July. Two years later, Ba'ililii died when his boat capsized in the San Juan River. His body was never found. Ba'ililii, like all traditional Navajos, had been very concerned about the government's threats to the Navajo way of life. When the government cut the students' sacred hair and taught them not to respect the Navajo way, the Navajos fought back. Despite the government's efforts to turn them into whitemen, the Navajos would remain Dine. |