Arizona weekly citizen., 1885-06-13
TOM FITCH ON THE APAcHEs.
Interview in s. r. Chrooiclel

Hon. Thomas Fitch, who has recently
 returned from a number of years resi-
 dence in Arizona. was next interviewed.
 "This Apache trouble" he said, requires
 remedy which Is hard to adminis-
 ter, for the proper medicine is wanting
 that IS, a public opinion based on the
 facts in the case. The whole East is
 saturated with false sentiment. growing
 out of the contemplation of the hypo-
 thetIcal Indian built up in the romsnces
 of J. Fenimore Cooper and his class of
 writers. l found in the East that 10
 this day, as ridiculous as it may seem,
 the popular idea of the Indian is that
 be IS an untutored child of nature, who
 spends his days worshipiDg the sun and
 bewailing his fallen condition. Well
 there ate Indians and Indians. We are
 now talking about the Chiricahua and
 Warm Spring Indians. They are
 band Of murderers and marauders.
 That was what Humboldt called
 them. They were so in his day; they
 remain so to thIs day. They are
 anything but untutored. They know
 what IS going on as well as the
 white men about them. They. are
 crafty, merciless, cowardly. They mur-
 der and rob for the love of it, and when
 they come face to face with the troops
 they won't fght-they surrender, to be
 taken back to the reservation for sea
 son of rest, recreation and recuperstion
 for the next raid. Two years ago they
 got Crook bottled up in Mexico. Crook
 cannot be blamed, perhaps, for trusting
 his Apache scouts. He had trusted
 them before and they were faithful, but
 that tune they betrayed him. The Chir-
 icahua Indians, when they got Crook down in Mexico, male him take back their women and disabled bucks and made him promise to receive them on the reservation with his blessing. Crook went ahead and the bucks followed with band of cattle they had stolen in Mexico. That was the treaty" Crook made. When the bucks arrived at the line with the stolen cattle the customs authorities stopped them and wanted the usual import duty. An order came promptly from Washington allowing the Indians to drive in their stolen cat tie free of duty. Soon after the h. dIans re .urned, the Chiricahuss were removed to the end of the reservation and taken out of the charge of the Indian agent and given to Crooks charge. The agent constantly complained to the Government that it would result in trou- ble if all the Indians were not put in hIs charge. These representations had DO effect until a few weeks ago, when the Chlrlcahuas were again placed under the agents charge. That was made the pretext for their present raid. Or course every Indian agent is a thief. He must be to be an Indian agent. The Indian ring is the most corrupt in the government, and it will not have an agent who is not thief. But that is scarcely justification for the annual numbering of whites which the Chiricahua Apaches in- dulge in. There is not d great deal of desirable land in Arizona, and the best of it IS covered by the San Carlos reser- vGtion. The Indians there should be re- moved to the Indian Territory and there allowed to pursue their own man ner of life and not interfered with
 What means would you suggest to | secure the punishment of Geronimo's | band.
 "A United States grand jury should | indIct all Indians who have left the res ervatIon and if they are not killed when the troops come up with them, as they should be, they should be turned over to the civil authorities, under the indict- ments, tried for murder, and if found guilty, executed, The trouble now is that the civil authorities are not allow ed to go on the reservation to arrest an Indian, no matter how many murders gan be proved against him. There IS mother thing: the officers and soldiers show a degree of cowardice in fighting Indians which IS utterly incompatible with their well-known and acknowl- edged bravery in any other kIni of lighting. The reason is this: When an outbreak occurs orders come rom Washington to suppress it That Is the letter of the order. The 'pirit of the order, stalking behind, is ielt by every officer and soldier He knows that he is more likely to be court than promoted if he fights an Indian as he would fight any other enc my. Every officer knows that General Phil. Sheridan nearly forfeited his pop ularity and professional prestige for having killed the Indians whom he went after in his northwest campaign, ten or twelve years ago. A lot of moon- ing, misInformed people in the east, i'm Dued with silly sentimentality about he untutored child of nature, demand the official head of any officer who tights an Indian as he would fight an if we were at war with England. That accounts for the cowar- Inca ypu read of ."