The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-01-11
THE CANN|BALISTIC INDIANS
Description of the Nam Eating Deni-
zenS OF Mexico.
ISHMAELITES OF COPPER HUE
A Brief History of the Most BlOodthirsty
Indians on the North American
Contincnt-Uttcrly Reject All
Advances Of Civilization.
By the United Press.

By the United Press.
Washington, Jan. 10.-The killing of
two Americans by the Seri Indians. of
Sonora, last spring has given occasion
for recent diplomatic correspondence
between the United States and Mexico.
The victims belonged to an exploring
expedition headed by newspaper man
| named Robinson. The latter and one
of his three companions were murdered.
The deed had no other motive than
pure fiendishness. Small as is the tribe
of the Sers-they number only about
$50 souls-these savages are the most
blood-thirsty in North America. For a
long time they have terrorized Sonora,
but the Mexican government seems
powerlesS to control them.
The tribe was visited recently by an
expedition from the bureau of eth
nology. which has just returned to
Washington with some very interesting
information. Professor w. j. McGee,
who led the party, said yesterday: ''It
is understood that the Seris are canni-
bals--at all events, that they eat every
white man they can slay. They are
cruel and treacherous beyond descrip-
ton. Toward the white man their at
titude is exactly the same as that of
the white man toward a rattlesnake-
they kill him as a matter of course, un-
less restrained by fear. Never do they
fight in open warfare, but, always lie
in ambush. They are copper-colored
Ishmaelites. 1t is their custom to mur-
der everybody, white, red or Mexican,
who ventures to enter the territory
they call their own.
A Primitive Race.
''In many respects the Seris are the
most interesting tribe of savages in
North America. They are decidedly
more primitive in their ways than any
other Indians, having scarcely any arts
worth mentioning. In fact, they have
not yet advanced as far as the stone
age. The only stone implement in
common use among them is rude ham,
mer of that material, which they en-
ploy for beating clay to make fragile
and peculiar kind of pottery. When
one of the squaws wishes to make meal
of mesquite beans, she has no utensil
for the purpose. She looks about until
she finds a rock with an upper surface
conveniently hollow, and on this she
places the beans, pounding them with
an ordinary stone.
1.-The Seris dive on the Island Of Tibu-
ron, in the Gulf of California. They
also claim 5000 square miles of the
mainland in Sonoro. Their dwellings
are the rudest imaginable. A chance
rock commonly serves for one wall of
the habitation; stones are uiled up so
as to make a small enclosure, and the
shell of a single great turtle does for
roof. The house is always open on
one side and is not intended as a shelter
from storms, but chiefly to keep off the
sun. The men and women wear a sin
gle garment like a petticoat made of
pelican skin; the children are naked.
Not far from Tiburon, which Is about
thirty miles long by fifteen miles wide,
there is smaller island where peli-
cans roost in vast numbers. The Seris
go at might and with sticks knock
over as many of the birds as they re-
quire.
Remarkable Runners.
physically speaking, the Seris are
most remarkable. They are of great
stature, the men averaging nearly six
feet in height with splendid chests.
But the most noticeable point about
them is their legs, which are slender
and sinewy, resembling the legs of the
deer. Since the first coming of the
Spaniards they have been known to
o other tribes as the Runners. 1t is
said that they can run from $50 to 200
miles a day, not pausing to rest. The
jack-rabbit is considered very fleet
animal, yet these Indians are accus-
toned to catch jack-rabbitS by out
running them.
Finding myself about 300 miles to
the southwark of the United States
boundary and in the neighborhood of
the Seris, l decided to visit them. l
went into the country of the Seris with
a very small party, consisting, besides
myself, of Mr.. Dinwiddie, of the bureau
of ethnology; a young Mexican engin-
eer, named Alvemar-Leon, a white
driver and one Papago interpreter. We
went to the rancho of certain Senior
Encinas. who has kept a stock farm in
the territory of these bloodthirsty saw
ages for many years. During that pc
riod he has maintained himself in war;
fare against the Serbs and has finally
compelled them to cease hostilities
against him.
Civilization Was Failure.
"Senor Encinas was the pioneer in
that region. He found good grazing
country in the territory claimed by the
Seris, and so established his stock farm
there. He brought priests with him to
convert the savages, and caught a cou-
pie of the latter to educate as interpre-
ters. The plan for civiliZing the In
dams proved a failure They did not
care to become Christians, and they
killed the Senor's stock. So, finally,
the Senior decided ITO adopt a new
course of procedure. He summoned
the Indians to q council. as many of
them as would come, and informed
them that from that time on he and his
vaqueros would slay an Indian for
every head of cattle that was killed
AT the same time he sent away the
priests and engaged an additional num-
ber of vaqueros.
'The Indians paid no attention to the
warning. A few days later they killed
| several head of cattle. Without delay
the Senior and his men cOralled and