OCR Text |
Show INDIANS OF NEW ME.XICO. 171 embracin portions of the.State of Texas, the province of Chihuahua, andsthe #e rritory of New Mexico, though their residence is about the White mountains, situated in the southern portion of this Territory. The country claimed by these Indians, as eculiarly their own, lies on the east side of the Rio Grande, and on loth sides of the Pew, ex-tending up the latter river from the northern bonnda~yo f Texas, to about the thirty-fourth parallel of latitude. This will cover a space of about fifteen thousand square miles ; and as they number about seven hundred and fifty souls, the country occupied by them will average, mytwenty square miles to each Indian. This band of Apaches have committed many depredations upon the citizens of this Territory during the last and present years, notwithstanding the ener-getic opertions of the military to prevent them; but having a portion of Texas and the Mexican province of Chihuahua to forage upon, also, their depredations within this Territory have been less serious than might otherwise have been expected. There is no doubt that manr indiriduals of this band made com-mon cause with the Jicari1las;n their recent hostile movements ; and there is great reason for believing that the whole of the former band would have joined the latter, had they hecn more successful. Although that portion of the valley of the Pecos occupied by the Mescaleros contains some of the most desirable lands for agricultural purposes within New Mexico, still they cultivate the soil to a very limited extent. Game is comparatively scarce in their country ; and hence these Indians subsist in a great measure by plundering the people of Texas, Chihuahua, and New Mexico, by which means they manage to supply themselves with horses and mules. It is a well-established fact that there is, and for a long time has been, a brisk trade in stolen property carried off between the Mescaleros and Jica-rillas. One band will steal horses and mules in its own vicinity, which are driven some four hundred miles to the country of the other, to be exchanged for similar propert.y, procured in like manner. The character of the country, and the remote distance of these two bands from each other, enables them to carry on this traffic in most in-stances without detection, since it is very practicable for the one to visit the other without passing through any portion of the settled country, or through the country of any other tribe of Indians. The Gila Apaches consist of several bands of the same great tribe, and derive their name from that of the river upon which, and its tributaries, they mostly reside. They claim all that region lying within New Mexico which is watered by the Gila and its tributaries, but roam over a much larger extent of country, and commit great depredations in the Mexican provinces of Sonora and Chihuahua. The facility and impunit.y with which these two provinces are plundered and robbed, has measurably mved our own people from like visitations during the last and present years. The country claimed by the several bands known by the general name of Gila Apaches will probably embrace an area of twenty-6ve thousand square miles ; and these bauds will probably number, in the aggregate, from three thousand five hundred to four thousand souls, which w111 give from six to seven square miles of land to each Indian. |