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Show INDIAN AGENTS' REPORT ON SLAVERY 87 The Utahs carry these children to New Mexico, where they find a profitable market for them among the Navajos; and so important is it in enabling them to supply themselves with blankets from the Navajos, who manufacture a superior article of Indian blankets, that the trade has become quite indispensable; and so vigorously is it prosecuted that scarcely one-half of the Py-eed children are permitted to grow up in the band; and, a large majority of those being males, this and other causes are tending to depopulate their bands very rapidly. GOVERNMENT INQUIRY INTO CONDITION OF INDIANS* Chief Justice Kirby Benedict sworn, and upon inquiries deposeth as follows: In August next I will have resided twelve years in New Mexico. I came here with the commission of judge, and have been a member of the supreme court and judge of a district up to the present time; since in the summer of 1858 I have been chief justice. * * * The Navajos w'ere in the habit of making forays upon the ranches and settlements, stealing, robbing and killing and carrying away captives; the finding of herds and driving off sheep and other animals was carried on to' a very ruinous extent; the killing of persons did not seem so much the object of their warfare as an incidental means of succeeding in other depredations. Sometimes, however, barbarous vengeance was exhibited and a thirst for blood. They carried away captives, but I cannot now give any accurate idea of the number. There are in the Territory a large number of Indians, principally females, (women and children), who have been taken by force, or stealth, or purchased, who have been among the various wild tribes of New* Mexico or those adjoining. Of these a large proportion are Navajos. It is notorious that natives of this country have sometimes made captives of Navajo women and children when opportunities presented themselves; the custom has long existed here of buying Indian persons, especially women and children; the tribes themselves have carried on this kind of traffic. Destitute orphans are sometimes sold by their remote relations; poor parents also make traffic of their children. The Indian persons obtained in any of the modes mentioned are treated by those who claim to own them as their servants and slaves. They are bought and sold by and between the inhabitants at a price as much as is a •Condition of the Indian Tribes. Report of the Joint Special Committee, appointed under Joint Resolution of March 3. 1865. With an Appendix, pages 325, 337, 355, 356, 357. The Doolittle Report. Washington, 1867. 88 UTAH HISTORICAL MAGAZINE horse or an ox. Those who buy, detain and use them seem to confide in the long-established custom and practice which prevails, and did prevail before this country was a portion of the United States. Those who hold them are exceedingly sensitive of their supposed interest in them, and easily alarmed at any movements in the civil courts or otherwise to dispossess them of their imagined property. The rich, and those who have some quantities of property, are those chiefly who possess the persons I have mentioned; those usually have much popular influence in the country, and the exertion of this influence is one of the means by which they hope to retain their grasp upon their Indian slaves. The prices have lately ranged very high. A likely girl of not more than eight years old, healthy and intelligent, would be held at a value of four hundred dollars, or more. When they grow to womanhood they sometimes become mothers from the' natives of the land, with or without marriage. Their children, however, by the custom of the country, are not regarded as property which may be bought and sold as has been their mothers. They grow up and are treated as having the rights of citizens. They marry and blend with the general population. From my own observations I am not able to form an opinion satisfactory to my own mind of the number of Indians held as slaves or fixed domestic servants without their being the recipients of wages. Persons of high respectability for intelligence, who have made some calculations on the subject, estimate the number at various figures, from fifteen hundred to three thousand, and even exceeding the last number. The more prevalent opinion seems to be they considerably exceed two thousand. As to federal officers holding this description of persons or trafficking in them, I can only say I see them attending the family of Governor Connelly, but whether claimed by his wife, himself, or both, I know not. I am informed the superintendent of Indian affairs has one in his family, but I cannot state by what claim she is retained. From the social position occupied by the Indian agents, I presume all of them, except one, have the presence and assistance of the kind of persons mentioned; I cannot, however, state positively. In the spring of 1862, when Associate Justice Hubbell and myself conveyed our families to the States, he informed me at Las Vegas that he sold one Indian woman to a resident of that place preparatory to crossing the plains. I know of no law in this Territory by which property in a Navajo or other Indian can be recognized in any person whatever, any more than property can be recognized in the freest white man or black man. In 1855, while holding district court in the county of Valencia, a proceeding in habeas corpus was had before me on the part of a w/ealthy woman as petitioner, who claimed the possession and services of a Navajo girl then twelve years old, GOVERNMENT INQUIRY INTO CONDITION OF INDIANS 89 and who had been held by the petitioner near seven years. On the trial I held the girl to be a free person, and adjudged accordingly. In 1862 a proceeding in habeas corpus was instituted before me 'by an aged man who had held in service many years an Indian woman who had been, when a small child, bought from the Payweha Indians. The right of the master to the possession and services of the woman on the one side, and the right of the woman to her personal freedom, were put distinctly at issue. Upon the hearing I adjudged the woman to be a free woman; 1 held the claim of the master to be without foundation in law and against natural rights. In each of the cases the party adjudged against acquiesced in the decision, and no appeal was ever taken. In the examination of the cases it appeared that before the United States obtained New Mexico captive and purchased Indians were held here by custom in the same manner as they have been since held. The courts are open to them, but they are so influenced by the circumstances which surround them they do not seem to think of seeking the aid of the law to establish the enjoyment of their right to freedom. James Conklin sworn: I was born in Canada; raised in St. Louis ; am sixty-five years of age; and have resided in this Territory since 1825. I think about half the time there has been war, and the other half peace, between the Navajos and Mexicans, ever since I have been here, both under the Mexican republic and the United States. The occasion of hostilities has been, the Navajos have been inclined to steal from the Mexicans, and when they do not, the Mexicans steal from them. During their forays, on both sides, they kill and rob, taking flocks and herds, mules and horses, and cattle and prisoners, and keep them as servants. They take Mexicans for servants, and the Mexicans take Navajos and make servants of them. This has been a hereditary thing from generation to generation. Apache Chiefs and Headmen: Before the war with the Utahs and Mexicans, had everything we wanted; but now have lost everything. Herrero was quite young when the war commenced with the Mexicans. In the war everything was stolen on both sides-women and children, flocks. When children were takven we kept them, sold them, or gave them back. The Mexicans got the most children; we have only two, and they don't want to go back; have not been in the habit of selling our own children; don't know of an instance. Juan Baptiste Laney: He is a Roman Catholic bishop of New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado. He has resided here fourteen years; has become 90 UTAH HISTORICAL MAGAZINE acquainted with the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico; has visited them all once, and some of them many times. * * * There are a good many Navajo captives among the Mexican families; they make the best of servants. Some families abuse them, while others treat them like their own children. Most of the Mexican families have them; there are more than a thousand of them, perhaps two or three thousand. Part of these captives have been taken in war by the Mexicans, and part have been purchased from the Indians, such as the Utes, who are constantly at war with the Navajos. These slaves have been bought and sold in this manner for years, but of late the traffic has been greatly diminished through the agency of General Carleton, and also in a certain degree through that of other persons. AMERICAN POSTS (Continued) By Edgar M. Ledyard Halifax, Fort. Fort Halifax was built at the mouth of Armstrong Creek, about one-half mile above the town of Halifax by Colonel William Clapham, in 1756. This was one of a series of fortifications, erected by the Provincial Government, from 1752 to 1763, located between the Delaware and Potomac Rivers. Plans for Fort Halleck called for two hundred squared logs, each about 30 feet in length. Work on the fort was pushed as rapidly as possible on account of impending Indian hostilities. The site was first called Camp Armstrong and renamed Fort Halifax by Governor Morris on June 25, 1756. It appears from imperfect historical data that the garrison formerly stationed at Fort Hunter, Pennsylvania, was removed to Fort Halifax soon after it was built. Simon Girty, father of the famous outlaw, lived at Fort Halifax, or near it, at one time, while engaged in trading with the Indians. When completed, the fort was a quadrangle w|ith four bastions, these being surrounded by a ditch about ten feet deep. Pennsylvania. Halleck Battery, on Tybee Island. Georgia. Halleck Battery, at Fort Hancock. New Jersey. Halleck, Fort, at Columbus. Kentucky. Halleck, Fort, at Suffolk. Virginia. Hallet, Camp, at Cranston. Rhode Island. Halletts Point, Fort, at Fort Stevens. New York. Halliman, Fort. Latitude 29°, longitude 82°45". Florida. Halsey, Camp, Kashequa, McKean County. Pennsylvania. Halt Mond, Fort. New York. Hamer, Fort, temporary post, left bank of the Manatee River, about four miles east of Braden Creek; established in 1849. Florida. |
