The record-union., 1897-06-28
DASTARDLY OUTRAGE.
SAMPLE OF CIVILIZATIONS"
LESSON TO "BARBARISM."
Can the "Great Father" at Wash
ington Afford to Ignore
This Action?

Francis E. Leupp Washington agent
OF the Indian Rights Association, has
/ sent out the following:
While the irrigation work has been in
progress on the upper end of the Nav
ajo reservation, fitting it for agricul-
ture, the Government has permitted
some sixteen families of Indians to go
over and herd their sheep on the pub
/ lie lands along the border of the Grand
| Canyon Forest Reserve in Northwest
ern Arizona They have been quiet and
inoffensive; and as the land they occu-
pied belonged to the United States and
they were on it by permission Of
the Government, they had an unassail-
able right there as long as their con-
duct was good.
But some of the white stockmen
in the neighborhood have begrudged
the use by Indians of lands which they
could otherwise use themselves. So on
the 18th of January last the Board of
Supervisors of Coconino County, with
in which these lands lie, directed the
Sheriff, in his capacity as Assessor, to
employ twenty men "at two dollars per
dians in this county The next day
the Sheriff, without waiting for any
order to be served upon him, gathered
twenty deputies, armed them to the
teeth, and started on his assessing"
expedition. Each head of an Indian
family was notified that he must pay,
cash down, So tax on every hundred
head of sheep he owned, or move out
of the county at once. Note the scandal
of this whole proceeding: The Sheriff
had evidently been in the plot, for he
was ready to start the next day after
the passage of this resolution and with
out even the form of an official notice,
and of course before the Indians could
be warned; the deputies in the posse
outnumbered the heads of families
among the Indians; they were heavily
armed, though going on an oStensibly
peaceful errand; the regular assess
ment season, under the general law,
was still good way off, so that this
was case of special legislation; and
the Sheriff, though authorized only to
| assess not only assessed, but levied
a specific tax directly. The tax was
extortionate, and obviously never de-
signed for payment, for the Navajo
sheep were not worth a dollar head
in the local market; yet the Sheriff
demanded instant payment under pen
atty of a sacrifice of practically all the
victims had.
The Indians, always poor, were pow
erlesS to pay their taxes down. They
pleaded piteously for little time either
to raise the money or to consult their
agent as to the course to take. But
the Sheriff refused any concession.
In default of payment, each family
was compelled to pack up it's property
and march at once. The weather was
bitterly cold; deep snow covered the
ground and more was falling, and it
was lambing time with the ewes To
move suddenly at such a season meant
great suffering for the Indians, to say
nothing of their sheep. But what did
that matter? Amid the cries of the
children from cold and fear, and the
weeping of the mothers, the Indians
rounded up their little flockS and We're
pushed northward toward the Little
Colorado river, the posse keeping UP
an intermittent fire with rifles and re-
volvers, spreading terror among the
herd and frightening the women and
children almost into Spasms When the
river was reached it was found swollen
TOO deep for the sheep to ford but
the posse drove the animals into the
water to swim or sink, as the case
might be. AS a matter of course
nearly all the lambs, and many of
the ewes on the eve of lambing, went
down. or were so chilled in crossing that
they afterWard died. Not content with
this, the posse burned many of the
Indian houses and corraIs to the
ground. Altogether, the mere money
loss suffered by the victims would
amount up into the thousands of dol
lars. Their lamb crop for the year is
a complete failure.
All this was done by a gang of
whites whose sole complaint against
their Indian neighbors is that they do
not take readily to the ways of white
civilization" Had such an outrage
been attempted against an inoffensive
white community there would have
been bIoodshed. But these poor In
dians struck not one blow in defense
of their homes, for their agent had
told them to live at peace with the
whites and trust the Great Father to
see any injustice righted.
The Great Father has had these facts
before him at Washington for several
weeks. If he wishes more details, he
has the administrative machinery at
command to draw them out.
There is good reason to believe that
ree-fourths of the white people in
Coconino County condemn this out
rage under the guise of law. Could
not enough of them be obtained to fill
jury box and to give back to the
poor refugees at least the money value
of the goods of which they have been
despoiled?
If civil process failed, this is . case
where resort to the military arm of
the Government would not be out of
place. If detachment of United
States regulars were sent to the scene
of the outrage to put the Indians back
upon the United States territory from
which they We're driven, and to stay
on the spot till the last liability of
further disturbance had passed away,
it would be a salutary lesson.
The case is one into which Congress
may properly inquire; and if there are
not laws enough now in the statute
book to meet it, some more should be
put there without delay
FRANCIS E. LEUPP,