OCR Text |
Show 180 INDIANS OF NEW MEXICO. for the last two years, and they now profess amicable relations towards the people of New Iilexico. They do not live in permanent villages, as do the Pueblo Indians, but migrate from one locality to another, as do all the mild tribes of New Mexico. It is believed that these Iudians could easily be induced to look mainly to agricultural and stock-raising pursuits as their great source of maintenance and subsist-ence, and to form pueblos or permanent locations. They also claim the country held and occupied by them by virtue of the same long unin-terrupted possessory title as that set up by the Utahs. The great Apache tribe proper occupy the aouth and southeastern part of this Territory. They traverse the whole southern section of this Territory, extending from its eastern to its western extremities, including the tributaries of the Rio del Norte in that part of the country. These Indians have little or no idea of manual labor, or manufactures of any description. An effort was made last year to induce these Indians to commence tilling the soil, on a farm o ened on the Rio Mimbres near the Copper Mines, under their chief, ganc. This enterprise was attended with some little success, and it is be-lieved, if this policy were persisted in, a change might be wrought in the condition of these degraded Indians. They perhaps excel all In-dians in this Territory in savage cruelty and hostile feelings towards the citizens of New Mexico and our government. They live mainly by plundering and robbing both Old and New Mexicans, often com-mitting frightful murders in their predatory excursions. They take many captives, whom they treat with the greatest barbarity, and often sell them captives to the Comanches, where they fare no better, and thus carry on a traffic in white human flesh with that savage tribe of Indians. They generally extend their peregrinations into the Mexican States of Coahuila, Chihuahua, and Durango, from which States they drive off much stock, and take their captives. This tribe is divided off into various bands, such as the Mescaleros, Garo-teros, and Gila Apaches, numbering, in all, seven or eight thonsaud souls. They are brave, daring, and warlike, cruel and revengeful. There is not much game in the country generally occupied by them. A firm, stern, and decisive policy should be meted but by the government to these Indians, as well as to others, when their actions make it neces-sary. It will be seen that, according to the above estimates, there are from twenty-four to twenty-eight thousand uncivilized or hostile Indians in this Territory, belonging to the tribes named, to say nothing of the powerful tribes of the Comanches all along the south and eastern borders, who are fierce, powerful, and warlike. They humber from ten to fifteen thousand souls, and have done great dam-age to the northern States of Mexico, driving off their herds and flocks, and forcibly carrying away their women and children into captivity and bondage. On the northern frontier of this Territory, along the Arkansas and its tributaries, considerable tribes, such as the Arrapahoes and Cheyennes, are to be found. These tribes con-tain something less than two thousand souls each. These tribes, as well as the Comanches and Cayugas, subsist mainly upon the buffalo. These noble aninials ofthe plains are evidently diminishing in num-bers, according to information received, which is believed to be relia- |