OCR Text |
Show 90 REPORT .OF COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. the Government, threatened to kill certain of its officers, terrorized the friendly Indians and the white settlers living aldig the borders of the rdservation, and depredated on their stock and other property. Conspicuous among the offenders were two Indians named By-a-lil-le . and Polly. By-a-lil-le's example among the Indians had hen bad all along; but earnest effort had hen made to gain his confidence and to per-suade him to exert a good influence on his clan. He was encouraged to cultivate some crops, to increase his flocks and herds and to send his chiltlren to school. But he persisted in his own course, and at the head of his brigand force, which was well armed, went into the outlying districts of the reservation and threatened to kill the In-dians who sent their children to scl~ool or took up civilized ways. As a <'big medicine man " he foretold disaster to those who failed to follow him, and vaunted his ability to strike with lightning any soldiers who might pursue him. The progressive and friendly Indians insisted from the first that mild efforts to get these renegades to behave themselves would be fruitless, and asked that soldiers be sent there to prove that the United States Government was able and willing to protect the people who were trying to make an honest living and be law-abiding. But the office was very reluctant, naturally, to resort to any measures which could be interpreted as threats, if tact and persuasion could be made to answer the purpose. In company with the San Juan superintendent, a special United States Indian agent investigated the matter and reported on April 6, 1907, that By-a-lil-le. was a dangerous Indian if he could hold his following. His territory bordered on the '' worst district of bronco Indians in the Southwest," the wilds of the Black Mountains, wheTe =endly Navahos fea~edto go, and where roamed some 800 or more hostiles who had never recognized government control but had threatened to ambush a former Indian agent who wished to visit them on a friendly mission. He also afliliated with.some 200 rene-gade Utes and Piutes, who were back in the breaks of the Colorado and San Juan rivers, where criminals and others opposed to the restraints of civilization could find convenient refuge, the whole kgion being an ideal country for the operation of outlaws, full of canyons, precipices and ledges which afford excellent places for ambush. The special agent recommended that By-a-lil-le and his followers , be disarmed, their children sent to school, the white settlers and the well-disposed Indians given protection, and the chief medicine men and lawless leaders placed where they would have to work. On September 18, 1907, the. superintendent reported that soon after his return hom his visit to By-a-lil-le's camp with the special |