Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1874-12-17
THREE INDIAN SPIES.
A Trasical story Of the Late war.

SIDES OF the - divided house upon the
thoughts and habits of the various com
munities of Pueblos, or stationary viii
lage Indians, whose homes for centuries
have been scattered along the various
watcr-courses of the Territory of New
Mexico
The Arcadian simplicity of these PEG.
pie became greatly disturbed, not only
by the difficulty of understanding the
merits Of the question forced upon them
by the rival partisans, but by their ina
bility to comprehend why, if the foreign
crs should quarrel among themselves, it
became the duty of the Pueblos TO enlist
their feelings and interests in matters
above their comprehension and outside
their policy. Many and varied were the
councils at which the ancients of each
village discussed all the possibilities and
probabilities of the coming conflict,
whose advance they lad been informed
of, from above and below, by their more
distant colonies; and, though the Indian
mind was unable to comprehend the
cause or necessity Of quarrel, the one in
cvitable fact was forced upon them that
their interests would be seriously affect
ed, not only by the already occurring in
terruption of the usual annual gratuities
of corn, seed, dry goods, etc, from the
General Government through its Indian
agents, but because strangers had begun
to call upon them-envoys from either
side-asking their cooperation in GER
tain measures wherein it WAS assumed
they could be highl5' serviceable.
II needs no very vigorous imagination
to portray the embarrassment caused by
these overtures to the simple villagers
They had fought in the sixteenth century
CALAMITY, sometimes successfully, for
their rights asN possessors of the soil
against the invasions of the bronzed,
bearded and iron-clad knights Of Spain,
and had wrung from the monarchs of
that country and from the Viceroys in
Mexico the cherished charters which
many of their aicaldes still held, bearing
record OF their possessory rights They
had peaceably and even eagerly &C
guessed in the change when Mexican
officials notified them of the transfer of
their allegiance to los Americonos in the
session of 1S4S. They had never, by
word or deed, been faithless or unfriend
ly TO their new rulers, never denied help
to the weary stranger, nor connived at
the robberies and murders committed by
the Navajoes and Apaches; but had
given all possible aid in their repression !;
in short, had been sever faithful" and
were consequently dismayed and con-
founded that they should be thus forced
into belligercnt attitude by the ext
gencies of the occasion; the least they
could expect being that they should not
De forced to actual violence against
either side.
Yet, simple minded as the Pueblos
l. hot 81. l., 81,
current whose mere eddles often draw
ioiterers from the shallow waters far out
and into the swiftest tides, where they
perforce must go as goes the stream !,
and SO they looked forward with certain
ty for calls upon their assistance to be
rendered in arms, men, or provisions.
But more particularly rs spies and scouts
would they be expected to act Both
parties were aware of their proficiency,
every spot of ground in the area of
possible neighboring conflict being
familiar TO them.
SO the war went on, and the Pueblos
played Just such part rs they had an
ticipated would be theirs There was
now no beneiicent Government TO send
highly acceptable annual presents, and
therefore no Indian agent to largely di-
istence the unwise extravaganza of the
Government These all vanished, and
in their stead came armed men, who half
asked for, half took the contents of the
village store houses, giving in return
strange and uninteligible documents
which the initiated only would know
were promises on the part of some one in
military authority to pay for the stores
glEpn--t1nIpr II n n p.
Cies
The reader will Judge their value to
the Pueblos when he Knows that most of
these vouchers were from the Confeder
ate authorities. Corn, chickens, eggs
and onions all staple commodities of
Pueblo communities-wcr rapidly and
surely disappearing under the constant
acquisitions of the contestants, and the
direst priyations were threatening tor
the future; but the poor Indian, though
he might think and say with iustitiable
tervor "A plague of both your houses
knew his weakness, and dared not say
nay to either of them. 1t is, per
haps, creditable to both fighting
parties that few attempts were
made to force the Pueblos out of
their position ms combatants, and
equally creditable to the Pueblos that
not only did they never leave that posi-
ton but that they refrained from the
general and wanton spoliation INDUCED
in by the MeXicans and wild Indians of
the United States forts when these were
necessarily abandoned to the large APP
preaching forces of the Confederate ser.
vice. But, as in every community there
are certain restless, adventurous spirits,
1t is not surprising that many of the
Dung men, though refraining from omen