Arizona weekly citizen., 1894-12-08
ABANDONED Indian Cattle Thieves Drive Out the Cattlemen. MASH & DRISC0LL MOVE. They Will Leave the Proctor and Fresnal Ranches to the
 Papagos and go
 to Canoa.
MASH & DRISCOLL MOVE.

Soon the broad plains west and south from Fresnsl and the Santa Rosa
 valley will be turned over to the coyote and the jack rabbit. All other life there
 will be gone. No Indians will roam
 there, contested and lazy and fat, no
 herds will bawl and paw there. Save
 some keeneyed smuggler or half loet nim-
 rod, the vast tract from Gunsight to
 Fresnal and thirty or forty miles wide
 will see no living forms.
 The working out of this effect may be
 gradual. First will come move that
 has become inevitible, and which is a
 scheme. The Maish & Driscoll herds
 are to be removed from that vast range,
 and all might as well be desert as other
 wise. With the removal of the cattle
 will be the loss of livelihood for the
 Pspagoes and they will go.
 The Pspagos in that region number
 several thousand. They comprise fif-
 may be said to be the stock stolen from
 t1c Adfo A 1cW ucbQ of their own, and every village has its particular brard, but after all, that too
 has come from the csttiemen in un-
 branded stock. The losses are estimat- ed by stockmen from this source at 100 head a month. And when an Indian kills stock, it is not to be supposed that he picks out the poorest. This
 loss is 5000 a month, and of course ruinous to any business.
 The methods are simple. Sharp precautions are taken to conceal the hide and the brand, and if possible also the meat. Some is sold at the Quijotoa placers, for prices that would make Tucson buyers envious. Much is made into ''jerky." They further get all their water from the adjacent ranches. There is the Fresnal ranch, which comes in for first regard. It has fine pumping plant and we'll 700 feet deep, requir- ing at outlay of thousands of dollars. The ranch was started years ago. "Re- presses" or small reservoirs have been built about it. Here the Indians have come daily for water for many years. They have further become rather in- solent and looked upon the privileges given them as rights. Once when @ mule belonging to one of them came to the corral riderless, with saddle under its belly, the saddle was removed by the ranch people and put in :ree in ths corral and the mule turned loose. The thieves turned sccusers and went to Agent Grouse of Sacaton with story that they were being robbed of the saddle. A note demanding the saddle iu peremptory terms was the result The cattlemen have had many such aggravations to endure. The Frank Proctor ranch, now owned by Maish & Driscoll will also be abandoned
 Another ranch that will probably have to gois James Quinlsn's. It is scarcely possible that MT. Quinlan can stand the thieveries of the Indians single handed. He too has been much harassed by the deviltries of the Indi- ans, and has been instrumented in bringing some of them to justice.
 The agents have been consulted. Not once but a hundred times they have been complained to by the ranchers. The result has been evil. Agent Grouse, it is claimed, made little effort to help the cattlemen, always siding with the Indians, and Agent Young has been unable to. Mir. Young got tele- gram from Washington not long ago him to arrange matters with Maish & Driscoll, but he could effect nothing. The Indians are only nomin- ally under his control.
 The methods of the new move are as follows: The round ups are about being concluded. The stock will be prohibit ed from the old range aforementioned, and will be kept at the Canoa ranch. Vaqueros will constantly ride the range between there and the old range. and will be keep them headed back.
 The Canoa range has plenty of feed for cattle, owing to the late good rains and the late cattle losses and sales. The range in question runs from the Santa Rltas south to the line. There the cattle will do we'll, and will not be the constant prey of the thleving Indians.
 When cattle were first driven ID on the Fresnal ranges the Indians did not molest them. For years the stock were safe, the Indians living from agriculture done in depressions in the lasd where water had been and then evsporated and supplementIng this with support from the reservations. Here they raised good corn and vegetables and made an honest living. Then came little steal ing, and a little more. Finally it came to the present status, where all are thieves and no mans herds are safe but their own. Many of them have been caught at the stealing and few have gone to Yuma. But that deterred them little, except the more timid. The matter has come to where the only metaod to overcome them is to stsrve them out. Now they will have to come in to the reservations, as they did years