Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1879-11-12
VICTORIO,
And His Band of Numbering
Sayages-Where Lies the Re
sponsibility for Their Hellish
naahsc

Sayages-Where Lies tine Re
sponsibility for Their Hellish
Deeds?
In 1880 the Pueblo Indians OF New
/ Mexico rose upon their cruel masters
and drove them out OF the country. In
this revolt they were assisted by the
Apaches. The early Spanish historians
speak OF the Navajo Indians as the Nav
! aio Apaches. 1t is quite probable that
all Indians iu New Mexico and Arizona
who are not Pueblos are Apaches. or
these warlike tribes those inhabiting the
| country about the head waters OF the
| ella River are among the fiercest. Some
| of the springs OF this river are near the
| Rio Grande, IN Central New Mexico.
| At this point are the Hot Spring
| Apaches. The Rio Mimbres rises also
in these mountains, and, running south,
| loses itself in the marshes OF Lake GuZ-
man, in the Mexican State OF Chihua-
hua. Along this river, down into Old
Mexico and back with booty to their
safe retreats in the Mogallon and MINI
bres Mountains, and occasionally across
the Rio Grande into Texas, these saw
ages have roamed, plundered and muir
dered for two hundred years. For years
they placed the State Of Chihuahua un-
der tribute and received an annual stipend
as the price of their forbearance.
At the close.of the Mexican war the
United States Government agreed, in
the eleventh article of the treaty Of
Guadalupe Hidalgo, to restrain these In
dian marauders. But this duty was neg
lected and Mexico presented claims
against the United States amounting to
between Sl5,00O,0O0 and 100000 900.
This difficulty was finally settled by the
cession on the part of Mexico OF farther
territory, and the payment by the
United States of Sl0,000,000. This has
been generally spoken OF as the Gadsden
purchase. Among the modern leaders
of these bands, Magnus Colorado, Gal
gadito, Ponci, Chochise and Victoria are
often mentioned. Vietorio, the last
named, is not the least famous. The
atrocities inflicted by the Apaches upon
their prisoners battles all description.
There is no species of torture which is
not practiced by them-not on enemies
alone, but upon unotfending travellers
and women and children ; and even
dumb beasts are tortured before they
are slain. Upon all these points there
can be summonedl a cloud of witnesses,
for this thing has not been done in cor
ner. Victorias band does not number
one hundred able-bodied robbers. The
United States army, at the request OF the
Indian Department, has taken them
prisoners four times within the past two
years. They have disarmed them, and
placed them under guard. They have
put them into army wagons and hauled
them all the way from the Hot Spring
Reservation, near the banks OF the Rio
Grande in New Mexico, to a reservation
in Arizona and within that time,
within those two years, Nictorla's band
of less than one hundred able-bodied
members has butchered more than one
hundred innocent, unoffending citizens,
besides a large number of United States
soldiers, and has destroyd a very
large amount of valuable property,
wantonly burning buildings and |
killing milk cows and breeding ami
mails which they could not use and did |
not want to eat. Evidence of all these |
statements is within easy call OF Wash |
ington. l affirm, without anv fear of |
contradiction, that neither Victoria nor |
any OF his band claim to have been i'll |
treated within the last two years either |
bv settlers, frontiersmen or Indian |
agents. Does any reader ask, "Why |
have they done this?" | answer, be- |
cause they are devilish brutes and |
hogs, savages by birth and murderers |
by education. They and their ances- |
tors have lived upon plumber and lap |
ped human blood for ten generations. |
Within two years, at a talk had with |
this murderer NictoriO, at the Hot !
Springs Reservation in New Mexico, i'll |
the presence OF General Edward Hatch |
and an officer of the Indian Depart |
ment, Victoria was demonstrated with |
for raiding upon Old Mexico. He and |
his bloody associates sat with Winches- |
ter rifles across their knees. and steel |
knives in their girdleS. They replied to
the Indian Inspector: at is none OF !
your busidess what we do in Sonora;
we are at war with Sonora we are a
nation; Sonora is nation; we are at |
peace with you; we are at war with So
nora; when we are ut war with you, we
will do the same to you" Now Vic |
torio and his band are at with us, and !
there is weeping in that fair land. |
Rachel weeping for her children, and |
refusing to be cOmforted because they
are not"
Who is responsible for these muir
ders2 The land is polluted with blood.
Who must answer the avengerP Why |
are these murderers permitted to roam
over the country? Seize this Savage
anl wrench that bloody knife from his
wicked hand. II he is worthy of your
love, wrap him in purple, and let him
fare sumptuously every day-but do
not permit him longer to make that
land desc lation, TO leave corpses to
putrefy upon its highwsys, and to fill
It's pure air with sickening scent of hui
man blood.