OCR Text |
Show 80 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. It would be well for you, in order to give as wide publicity as possible to the matter, to seoure the publication of these new rules in newaprspers and stoekjour-nala in your vicinity, where it can be done without expense to the Government. It would seem that such papers and journals woold be glad to publish this as news for the benefit of their subscribers. In fact, in this mstttter, it is the desire of thia office that you take such action as may be necessary, in your jadgment, to secure to all partiea interested a full knowl-edge of the provisions in these ,joint regulations concerning cattle and other etook, which provisions moat be faithfully observed and carried out. For your information I hew to add that the Treasury Department has been fur-nished a sufficient number of these printed rules to enabla i t to supply the anstoma officers, etc., and i t itr thought that such Treaaury Dq-ent officials in Arizona will be fully instructed in the premises in due course of time. In conneetion with carrying out the instructions given above I have to say further, that, as you may be %ware, it is abaolately necessary for tlie proper conduct of the Govsmment business and the maintenance of harmonious relations with the border Republic, that thin Department should give its active support and hearty eoopera-tion to the Treaaury Department officials in theobservs,nceof the sanitary lawsand the protection of the revenue. As an agent of this Department in ohsrge of the sganoy, you are responsible for the oarryiogout of a proper line of policy to this end. SMALLPOX AMONG- PUEBLOS IN ARIZONA. Xodoqnis.-On December 14,1898, three cases of smallpox, then &ready convalescent, were discovered in the pueblo of Walpi, one of the three villages of the first or east mesa of the Moqui Pueblo Reservation, i Ariz. Although prompt steps were taken by the agency and school employes, the latter at Keams Canyon, only 12 miles distant, to pre-vent the spread of the disease, both by vaccination and quarantine, it i broke ont in rapid succession and raged in a most malignant form in all of the three villages of the first mesa, and soon afier in the three^ villages of the seoond mesa. The population of eaeh mesa was about 450, making a total population for the two mesas of 900. Of this number, 590 persons are reported to have contracted the disease and 184 deaths occurred. The ageney authorities, as the result of careful policing and the enforcement of effectual quarantine measures, succeeded in preventing the spread of the disease to the village of Oraibi, on the third mesa, only a few miles distant from the second mesa and containing a popula-tion of about 990 people, and for this they deserve the highest com-mendation. The disease was also prevented from reachiug the Indian school at Eeams Canyon. By the latter part of March the disease had apparently run its course in the first and second mesas, and no new cases having appeared for some time, steps were taken at once to have all the villages in which the disease had raged thoroughly cleansed and disinfected. The Indians were bathed and given new clothing, and their dwellings and the provisions stored therein, including 1arge.quantities of corn, were thoroughly fumigated. A certain hostile element among the Moqnis opposed this work of disinfeotiou and finally retreated to the last vil- |