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Show dustrial pursuit, and to enter into and maintain friendly relations with the whites. We have reports from the military in Arizona, and from Honorable !A. P. K. SaEord, governor thereof, that the Coyoteros, or White Mountain Apaches, 1,400 or 1,500 in number, have expressed their desire to be at peace and placed upon a reservation under the pro-tection of the Government; and the opinion is entertained that if the Indian Bureau would take charge of them by a competent agent, and furnish them with seeds and agricultural implements, their civilization would be ultimately secured. I bad the honor, in March last, to sng-gest that, should the military authorities in Arizona adopt the plan pro-posed by. them, of establishing these Indians upon a reservation in the region mentioned, this office would cooperate with them, and use all the means at its command to further the desired object. Among the accom-pauying documents to this report, following the report of the superin-tendent of Indian affairs for Arizona Territory, will be found a commu-nication upon the subject from Qovernor Satlord and Major John Green, United States Army, commanding Oamp Ord, Arizona, to which I invite especial attention. For several years an unpleasant feeling has been growing between the citizens of Arizona and the Pima and Maricopa Indians, who have an extensive reservation upon the Gila River. That this should be so is very much to be regretted, as a serious outbreak on the part of the Indians would tend to almost wholly depopulata Central Arizona. Reports show that during the present year the conduct of the Indians has been more insolent and arrogant than ever. They depredate upon the property of citizens around them whenever it pleases their fancy, and the citizens have no remedy except retaliation or recourse to law, which is seldom undertaken for fear of greater outrages and the enmity of the Indians which might follow in the one case, or the tardy and un-certain issue in the other. Should the Southern Pacific Railroad ever be constructed, it must, almost of necessity, pass through the Pima and Maricopa reserva,tion, ~n which event the condition of these Indians will be made mnch worse than at present. They now complain of being too closely crowded by the white settlements springing up around them, and assert, with great show of truth, that the lands secured to them by a regular Spanish grant hare been taken from them without their consent and without any compensation. They are, to some extent, agriculturists snrl stock-raisers; and, ere they become more dissatisfied and uncon-trollable, the que~tions hould be definitely determined as to the exten-sion of their reservation, which they insist upon and which the Depart-ment has heretofore thought to be justly due to them and recommended should be done. Either this should be accorded, or else ample home-steads in severalty should be permanently secured to them. But little progress has been made by the Indians for whom the reser-vation was set apart on the Colorado Rive.r; only oomparatively a few have ever been at any one time upon it, and it has been impracticable to accomplish, to any considerable extent, the beneficent purposes of the Goverliment in their behalf. The causes of failure are mainly to he found in the aridity of the soil and the atta.cksof hostile tribes. Abet-ter condition of etilil.s n.ould doubtless exist could a sunicieut iuilit:tr-fitwe he stafi~~tlrIdI ~ O Uth e reserve lo protect the well-111hposeda nd to 1.estri1i11th e 1awlvs.i; ulld vcr t the irri~ariulcc no:rl. whiclt Ilus brrn in course of constructi'on for several year{ completed and made available to water their dry and sandy fields. There are other Indians in Ari-zona, concerning whom little is known to the Department; but efforts will be made during the present season by which, it is hoped, reliable |
