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Show r4 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFF-8. and protect them. The Friendly chief retorted that any of the Oraibi Hostiles who cast their lot with the Shimopovis would have to go also when the Shimopovis went. Thereupon the Friendlies set about clearing the village of Shi-mopovis. They began on the very spot where they then stood; but every Friendly who laid hold of a Shimopovi to put him out of doors was attacked from behind by an Oraibi Hostile, so that the three went wrestling and struggling out of the door together. It was a very vigorous clash, tho only hands and feet were used and no weapons drawn or. either side. The Friendlies were not particular as to how they disposed of their enemies, but clutched them by their clothing or their extremities or their hair, as might be most con-venient. When they had cleared that house they made a circuit of the rest. The evicted Hostiles were driven to a point outside of the village and herded and guarded there.. The present' Hostile chief is a usurper and has maintained his authority among his followers by the same means resorted to by leaders of superstitious mobs ever since the world began-getting up dreams and omens and prophecies to order, and distorting all the commonest events of life into fnlfilments of his prognostications. Consistent to the last, he went about on this fateful day with a com-placent air,. declaring to his people that all that they were passing thru now was but a fuliilment' of a prophecy which had said that one or the other party wonld eventually be driven off the mesa for-ever, and that the decision of who should go and who.should stay was to hinge upon the ability of one party to push the other across a certain line which should be drawn on the ground. A tug of war of very primitive character then ensued, and the Friendly party, representing only about one-third of the tribe, actually succeeded in pushing the Hostile party, comprising the other two-thirds, across the established line. This settled the business, and the Hostiles withdrew to a place in the desert, about 5 miles distant, where there is good water, and encamped. Meanwhile the whitks had induced the victorious Friendlies to permit the Hostiles to return to the village, in groups of three at a time, long enough to gather up food and clothing. Of course the very old Hostiles; the babies, and- the women soon to become mothers have been the chief sufferers from the exposure and discomforts of camp life. I am now taking measures to relieve the immediate n'ecessities of the sick and helpless, and have endeavored to break the spell which binds the Hostile faction to their usurper chief by notifying them that any of their number who feel disposed to for-sake their folly, become loyal to the Government, and pledge them-selves to be peaceable, may return to Oraibi, the Government guar-anteeing them readmission. Some signs of weakening have shown themselves in the Hostile' |