Los Angeles herald., 1891-06-24
OFF TO THE WAR.
Colonel COrbin Leaves on An
Indian Expedition.
The Powerful Moquis Said to
Be Hostile.
The Colonel Hopes to Arrange the
Difficulty Peaceably.
Lieutenant Brett Teiegraphs TO General
McCook Asking for Soldiers at Oraibe,
Colonel Corbin Given Two
Troops of Cavalry.

troops OF Cavalry.
The dispatch was published yesterday
sent to the army headquarters here by
Lieutenant Brett, stating that he had
gone to Oraibe, Arizona, on official bus
mess, and was met with hostile demon.
strations from the Indians in that
village. General McCook considered
the information serious enough to issue
an order dispatching Colonel Corbin OF
his staff to the scene of trouble and
make careful examination into the diff
ficulty.
Colonel Corbin will start today for
Holbrook, on the Atlantic and Pacific
railroad in Arizona, where he will be
joined by two troops, one from Fort
Apache under Major Mcclellan, and one
from Fort Wingate, under Major Jack
son. The command will number about
260 men, with two pieces of ar
tillery. He will first stop at Karin g
(or Kean's) caf1on, on the Moqui
reservation, where advices from Wash
ington to headquarters here say that
there has been some sort OF trouble
brewing, and from there he will 60 to
Oraibe. This is village in the Moqui
reservation where large number of In
dians are concentrated. Lieutenant
Brett is a gallant young officer, tried
soldier in Indian warfare, understands
the character of the red man. He
has had twelve years. service since he
graduated from West Point, and is con-
sidered man OF excellent Judgment.
1t is not likely that he would have sent
a dispatch asking that troops be for
warded to Oraibe unless the necessity
was actual and pressing.
Oraibe is situated on the Moqui reser
walton, and is about one hundred miles,
as the road runs, from Holbrook. From
Winslow station it lies due north, as
traced on the map, about sixty miles.
The Moquis are very interesting peo-
pie. The American reading public has
been made familiar with them by a
series of magazine articles published by
Mr.. Gushing about their manners, Gus
toms and religious rites. He designates
them as Zufiis, which is the generic name
of the numerous families of cliff
dwellers. 1t will be remembered that
Mr.. Gushing, young Boston graduate
from college, some twelve years ago pen
etrated into the country of the Zunis
and became greatly interested in the
people. He first brought them to gen.
eral notice in series OF articles in Har-
pers' Magazine, which attracted wide
attention. His interest in the people
ripened into friendship that eventu-
ated in his marrying the daughter of
chief OF the tribe, and becoming a chief
himself.
Some two years ago he took large
delegation OF Zunis east, and they were
the objects of great interest. One of
their religious rites is to make pill
grimage to the ocean, where after wor-
shipping the deity of the deep, they fill
vessels with the water and take it back
to their country, where they use it in
their religious ceremonies. They per-
formed their rites of worship on the
shores of the Atlantic for the first time
in their history when they went east
with Gushing.
These people have always been con-
sidered peculiarly tractable and docile
race. They are industrious and live in
the houses they have carved out of
the cliffs which abound in the Moqui
country. Their close neighbors are the
truculent and warlike Navajoes, now,
however, somewhat domesticated and
tanned on account of the wealth that
has grown up among them in focks of
sheep from whose feeces they weave
the fine and costly blankets which have
become an article OF commerce. 1t was
probably to protect themselves from the
surprises of this warlike tribe and the
Apaches from farther south that they
first resorted to living in houses carved
in the cliffs.
Colonel Corbin will make a careful
examination into the cause of the dis
satisfaction that exists among the
Moquis. He thinks that it may be a
bringing patience and good sense to
bear in its treatment. 1t is probably
the result of recent order of the in
terror department requiring the Mo-
quis to send their children to a new
school that has been opened in the
Navajo reservation. The Moquis do
not want their children to be taken
from them. and their interference with
surveyors is a protest against the en-
croachment of our civilization. upon
theirs, which they consider the best.
Colonel Corbin is a clear-headed, con-
servative officer, and he will no doubt
be able to settle whatever difficulty may
exist, without coming to blows. But,
as he says himself, one cannot be sure
to what exten. an Indian grievance may
have penetrated tribe, and imbued it
with dangerous warlike feeling, and it
is therefore always best in treating with
them, when in a disgruntled state, to
have the effective argument OF force be-