Arizona weekly enterprise., 1890-08-30
THE YAVA-SUPAIS
TRIBE OF INDIANS BUT LITTLE
 KNOWN.
Living in Seclusion in Yavapai County, Arizona---But Few White Men Have Ever Visited this Strange Tribe
 Their Canyon Home.
s. F. Chronicle.

Col. W. H. Holabird, the well-known boom" of Claremont, Los Angeles county, | is at the Palace Hotel, having just re- the canon of the Colorado. He left Will iams, station on the Atlantic and Pa cific Railroad, with his guide, William Bass, a teamster, a photographer and two servants, and travelled through an al- most wholly unexplored region. About 100 miles due north of Williams he found the Yava-Supai tribe of Indians, living in exclusion in Cataract Canon, not far from the Grand Cafon of the Colorado
 Il found there a strange race of red men," said Colonel Holabird to a San Francisco Chronicle reporter last evening Il guess 1 was the fourth white man who ever visited their canon. They are a peaceable people, but avoid coming in contact with the whites. They are of the Apache family, but are evidently very ancient people. The men are magnificent specimens of manhood, with fine phys iques. l rounded up the settlement and counted just 247 of them, fully two-thirds being females The valley in which their tribe have lived for many years in seclu- sion has two ways of approach. It con tains perhaps 2OO0 acres, and enclosed by | II. 1 We travelled for over fifteen miles along the cafion and over the dryest, most life | less country man every set foot upon. l Suddenly we came to two boiling springs under clump of cottonwood trees. From these springs river starts, which winds its way through the most luxur- iant valley region l have ever visited.
 The water in the river Is clear as crystal, and being strongly impregnated with lime,
 petrifies everything it touches There
 are three immense cataracts in the cafl- on. built up during the past centuries by calcareous petrification. It looks as if
 centuries ago huge cottonwood tree had
 fallen across the stream and lodged there
 Noses. ferns and creepers formed bar
 rier and all these in time turned to lime
 stone.
 The grass caused the deposit to in-
 crease until the barrier extends 720 feet
 across the canon, making fall 250 feet
 high. Intense solitude makes the falling
 of the water the only sound. Along the
 front of these high cataracts, limestone
 ridges, like lambrequins, have formed
 twenty to thirty feet, one above the other
 Over all these the crystal water falls like
 sheet of glass. Underneath, between
 the ridges. thousands of plants with
 flowers in full bloom are seen, while mil
 lions of humming birds dart in and out
 It was fairyland, and I almost expected to see sprite or elin upon every
 leaf.
 1.-The chief of the strange tribe living in
 this canyon is an old man of sixty years
 named Captain Tom, name given him by John D. Lee, the Mormon. who escap.
 ed from Utah and for six years lived in
 hiding with the red men. He was the
 first white man the Yava-Supais had ever seen, and he taught the chief the white mans language and the use of firearms
 The Indians live in small houses wover from young willow trees. They are simple and harmless people, wholly un acquainted with civilization. The young
 men are experts with the bow and arrow and can kill birds in the air and rabbits on the run with the greatest ease. Tn, old chief met our party with two warrior
 as body guard. They were decked III
 with their trappings, and looked ferc
 enough.
 s Il found these Indians in starvin,
 condition, living upon cedar berries an,
 grass seeds. As soon as 1 reached tn
 railroad 1 communicated with the In S terior Department, asking for assistanc : for these Indians, and the reply from tn a Interior Department stated that the re j. men were wandering people and coul n not ask the Government for assistance ]. I have since reported the case to Geners e Miles, and he has promised to inves 0 tigate the matter The Indians are not $ rowing people but have lived in the caflo
 for century or more. General Miles ir | formed me that he had heard of thi ' strange race, but had never been able t g secure guide to the canyon where the n live.
 y '.Dr Samuel Dorchester. whom met 2 Il Williams, A. T., has just concluded tai 3, ing the Indian census of Arizona, whic \, shows an Indian population in the Tel o ritory as follows: Navajos 18.OOO; Paps $ gos, Pimas and Maricopas, 5000; Sa n Carlos Apaches, 4,500; Moquis, 2,2O( e Mohaves, 2,2O0 and Yavi-Supais, 25 'f total of over 38.000 Indians in Arizon