Arizona citizen., 1876-02-26
THE CITIZEN.
TUPD1Y FEBRU4RY26, lS76
Northexsteru Arizona.

night or tut lSl i''7'
 ran off sixteen cattle belonging to <
 Sco,t nine belonging to T. Martin Q two belonging to Barada and two be
 lonoinr to J. Stimson. These caitl
 were owned by parties ranching at tn
 Horse head crossing of the Little Colo
 rado eirh,y miles north of Camp Apa
 che On the night of the 2d instant, thu
 iNavaioes made several attempts to rui
 off fine sheen herd, 1,709 in number, O
 . connie of Americans stationed twelve
 miles below Hunts ranch. These par
 lties have ROW moved their sheep above
 Hunts place on the river, where they
 will have more protection. Messrs Cooley and Clark tell nae that they also Inv Navaioe and Apache depredations, are short fifty COWS and three steers Certain of the citizens sent request to Camp Apache for military protection,
 and Major Worth, at present in com
 
 mand there, started out in pursuit of
 tbe Indians on the morning of the l1th. lit is shameful, to say the least, to allow these prowIing Navajoes to be roaming
 hundred miles or more from their reservation. There seems to me but
 one remedy for these depredations and that is to keep the military scouting ln-
 stead of lying idle in their camps. The reservation system, except that at San Carlos, is getting to be the merest farce. In THE CITIZEN of the 10th ultimo I noticed an account of party of eas-
 tern colonists who were about to start or were on their way to this section. I know by personal knowledge that
 there is no part of Arizona which offers
 better inducements 10 settlers, than the
 Little Colorado or northeastern section.
 There are in some parts of the Terri tory small areas of better land than the
 greater part of this section, but to offset this we have immense areas, hundreds of thousands of acres. of as fine grazing land as ever laid out of doors. We have abundance of timber, plenty of water. average soil, and indications of coal wherever one goes. At St. Johns,
 where your correspondent is at present,
 it would be hard to approximate the amount of grain that will be produced thIs year Every man, woman and child is busy taking ont new ditches and enlarging old ones, preparatory toI planting a very large crop, perhaps double the amount of last year. In this settlement there are about thirty chil-i dren between the age of fourteen and twen;y-one years, and a petition was sent some time ago to the board of su-i perisors, praying tlrat school district be established here. It is to hoped l that the board will grant the request 1 The greatest drawback 10 this section is the lack of mail route from Good win, Arizona, to Fort Wingate, New Mexico. To get a letter from Santa Fe or Albuquerque requires nearly a time and the letter is obliged .o travel about nine hundred miles whereas the actual distance from San a Fe via Wingate, to this place, is two hundred and Seventy-five miles. All eastern mail for Camp Apache or the Little Colorado is compelled at present O go down the Rio Grande to Mesilla 'r Las Cruces, three hundred and fifty niles from Santa Fe,) thence to Tue on, 0hree hundred miles more) and rom Tucson to Apache two hundred
 md twenty-five miles farther.) From 'amp Apache to St Johns is seventy i've miles. If oEr late petition for a nail via Goodwin to WIngate bel -ranted, it will be a great blessing to- his section.
 All the citizens of these parts, with 'hom l have conversed on the subject, | egard the late Indian unpleasantness ( t Apache as the best thing that could [ ave happened for the settlers, as it has [ ompelled the Indians to go to San 'arlos, and no doubt Mr. Cum will do he business for them in manner sat 'faetory Co all concerned. If the [ 'ayajoe authorities would employ an c ndian police. as their Agent did, c link, in 1872, and as Agent Cum San Carlos does now, the Indians |, .ould be kept under pretty fair sub D 'etion. Lately however, at the Maya c 'e reservation the authority has been d lifting from civil to military control | nd back again, to such an extent, that q lere has evidently been no control a hatever. In former letter stated that there o ere 10000 head of sheep in this sec V on. Since the writing of that letter ' 'Teral parties have moved their sheep f lto the Colorado precinct, and at pres r lt there are over 100, ,OO0head of sheep 0 this country round about" The mbing season has commenced, and
 leep men tell me that they are doing
 rst rate, losing only one-eighth of the 'mbs, which is considered by them he men, Hot the lambsl as extraordi- t arily good luck. 1t would be safe to d the number of sheep in this !