Kansas City daily journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1892-1897, 1895-03-11
THR PIMA INDIANS.
They Are Farmers and Have Never Shed u
White Mans Blood.

c. D. Poston in Kate Fields Washington.
Mention which l have seen somewhere
| chief who was educated at Hampton in
stitute in Virginia, reminds me of my long
aequaintanee with, his grandfather Anto-
MO Azul, whom | first met at the Pima viii
lagos in Arizona in 1854. He was a very
good man. Antonito's father, Antonio, was
| always a good friend of nine too. We
when ] was superintendent of Indian af-
fairs under President LINCOLN. We made
to the Pima villages. Ross Brown was with
US and wrote an account of the trip.
Archbishop Allemany, in California, asked
me to take couple of priests along-Fath-
er Rosco and Father Messa-one an Italian
and the other a Frenchman. They preached
at Pima and told the Indians all about
Then we went on to Tucson and estab-
lished the Jesuit Priests in the old mission
founded a hundred years before
IL was strange scene when the caval-
cade entered the old churchyard of the
mission. Jose Nictoriana Solorsc, the chief
of the Papagos, had had the old church
edlhce cleaned, and ornamented. and as
gan firing rockets and ringing bells in re-
Joiclng. They We're "A branch of the Pima
tribe and were called Papagos from Papco-
hiad iaed. meaning baptized or Christian
The PImas are very remarkable tribe
CT Indians. and have never known of
their shedding a white mans blood. They
were earning their own living by agricult-
ure when the Spaniards first came among
The government of the United States
feeds clothes and arms the Apache scoun-
drels to murder and rob its citizens, but
This is not right The Apaches have
robbed the Spaniards. Mexicans and Amer
leans for 300 years, but the PImas have
never robbed anybody.
| can remember when the emigrants TO
California wonld have starved on the jour
ney but for the grain the Pimas had raised
And ! have many times known the Pimas
TO give food 10 emigrants who had no
money or anything else to pay with. |
myself have slept as safely In the Pima vii
lagos as ] could in Washington and when
we went out against the Apaches the Pi-
That recalls to mind curious custom
when we returned from a campaign; If the
Pimas had killed any Apaches they, paint
going 10 their homes; but II they were
bloodess they painted themselves white
and entered into the joys of matrimony,
The Pimas have many Jewish customs
especially In dealing with women Where
they obtained them puzzles me to guess.
soluble mystery. Where did they learn
that?
Then their practice of swapping wives in
the unnitiated. l had Pima sergeant
named Louis. He was a fine fellow and |
dressed him in uniform and gave him a big
sword and put him on guard as a sentinel
one day after siesta, | went out and
found Louis walking about with his arm
around another Indian, Pima fashion. /
asked HIM
"Who Is that?"
That is my brother in-law." he replied.
Did you marry his sster?'
mo"
ibid he marry your sister?"
mo"
Then how in the name of common sense
is he your brother-in-l law"
He married my Wife"
1T turned out that they had amicably ex-
changed partners.
What commentary on the wasteful pro-
cess OF divorce as We know III