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Show XXII RHPOET' OF TEE COMW53IQNER OF INDIAN AFP&U&5. but with the help Of a brush-hut, built dwing the year, under the su-pervision of Oapkain Chaffee, temporarily in charge as agent, they have managed to cultivate about 100 aores and to raise 4,000 bushels of nheat., corn? and barley. In order to become owners of stock-cattle, several families allowed t.heir beef tickets to accumulate until they were entitled to one or more cows, and in that way obtained the nucleus of a herd. This intemt in stock-raising has been fostered and stimulated by the issue to them, within a Sear, of 1,100 head of stock-cattle, which ham been highly prized and well cared for by their Indian owners, especially such as have lesirned to milk the cows, and are beginning to appreciate the value of milk as an article of diet. There seems to be no foundation for the charge that the San Carlos Indians have aided or abetted Victoria in his lawless raids. On the contrary, the San Carlos Apaches suffered by the depredations of Vic-toria on their sheep and cattle, and by his attack on a party of Coyote-ros at Eagle Creek, in which 11 Coyotero Apaches were killed. Two women were also killed by white soldiers, who mistook them for a part of Victoria's band. The readinesswith which gro~iudlesrsu mors of dep-redations on the part of these Indians can be started is shown in the following extract from the agent's report: On tho 19th of May a report canle frolo General Caw, an operator of the telegraph xt Tres Alamos, that Indians had committed serioos depredations at Bunker Hill Min-ing Camp ; also, that reservation In@ms had gone on the war path in that vicinity. The chief of scottts was sent i-ediataly to ascertain the truth, a d re turned on the 2311, reporting not a word of tnlth to exist in the case. No Indians had been soen there for two weeks, 8:lVe peaceable Indiana farming at the San PedmRiver-Ea-kim-i-rinas' and Sagml-ly's band. Two miners, in a, drunken q u a ~ e lh,a d killed each other, rind 0x1 findiug the bodies it had been attributed to Indians. The subject of a water supply, which is an all-important one through-out Arizona, becomes a grave one whenever it concerns an Indian reser-ration, the prevailing opinion being that Indians have no water rights nhicbwhitemen are bound to respect. Althoughthe SauDarlos Reserve is comparatively well supplied with streams, and although scarcely a beginning in farming has heen made, the water question is already as-suming serious proportions. The agent reports : The water in Gila is being rapirlly depleted by lmge quitntitles being taken out by ditches in the vicinity of PuebloVeijo, twenty milas shave Camp Thomaq and a fiftrm-foot ditch now being dug by the Mormons in that vicinity wil1,in low-water, serionsly damage the water privileges on this reservation. If there is any lav in regard to this it should he enforced, so that the Indians can be proteotediu their water rights, B matter of vital importanoe to their advancement and oivili=ation, 98 vork aud ed~~oatitioanr e the fonndationa for their moral elevation. Enless obstructions of this character me placed in the way, there is no doubt that the L'intractable Apache" can, in a few years, be taught to raise the greater part of his own ~ubsistence~providehde is given a rea-sonable amount of assistance and instruction, instead of being l& to become disheartened by failures resniting from his own ignorsnee. |