Arizona republican., 1898-01-04
THE NAVAJO CASE
Report of Of General R. Allyn
 Lewis to the Governor
THE COC0NlNO OFFICIALS
Merely Executed the Law for
 the Collection of Taxes
The Woes Of the Indian Stockmen Exaggerated by an Agents RepSrt Unsubstantiated by Facts and Unsupportsdby Witnesses.

l On6upp0rtaGbyW Witnesses. i The report of General R. AllyI i Lewis, who was sent to investigate the i alleged trouble between the county Of
 Indians who were pasturing focks ol 1 sheep within the borders of Coco 1ino
 county has been submitted to Gov
 eumor McCord. The report, em-
 bracing eleven typewriter pages, is l very exhaustive, covers every possible feature of the controversy and leads
 to the conclusion that the officials of l Coconino county merely performed l their duty in a most humane manner. 1 The matter had it's origin in an attempt by the sheriff of Coconino county to collect taxes upon the f1ocks of the l Indians, then within the county. He 1 was proceeding under the revised statutes of the territory in precisely the same manner that all owners of migratory herds and fiocks are pro- ceeded against in every county. The proceedings were denounced as out
 rages and Major Constant Williams, acting agent of the Navajo Indians, dispatched one Joe c. Tipton to in- , vestigate them. Tipton's report was rhetorical in language and hear-- rending in statement. His findings were reduced to the following:
 That the sheriff demanded the taxes to be paid to him at once, giving the Indians the alternative of moving out immediately
 That the prayer of the lndISs for time in which to procure money and ascertain their rights in the premises was stomtly denied.
 That the taxes were not due nor had the time arrived for making the as- sessment.
 That in default of the payment of the arbitrary ard unlawful sum fixed by the sheriff they were forced to pack up their traps and march.
 That the weather was bitter cod and a deep snow covered the ground, with more falling.
 l time in which to get out were inex- orably denied.
 That their little flocks were rounded up and pushed to the Colorado through a deep snow with relentless haste, the posse keeping up an inter mittent fire with rifles and revolvers-
 That when the river was reached it was found to be so deep as to require the grown sheep to swims but never theless the f1ocks were surrounded and pushed into the water and as a conse- quence nearly all the lambs together with the grown sheep went down the stream or were chilled to death after crossing.
 That the outrage was aggravated by the firing of many of the Indians houses and corrals and burning them to the ground.
 These findings of Tipton were in corporated in report by Major Will l,ams to his department and the re- quest by the department of Governo- 1! McCord fer an investigation followed. General Lewis discovered in the first l place that Tipton's work was not prop l erly do,e.
 In the first place his assertions were supported by no evidence. His re- port contained no data or names of {, persons cognizant of the alleged out 1 rage Beside the above described charges Tipton made many insinua- tions, none of them supported by facts, and in no instance was reference ! made to a source of information. Gen l eral Lewis was therefore compelled 1 to proceed with each of Tipton's $ 1 charges and make a diligent hunt for l witnesses.
 He first ascertained the right of the sheriff of Coconino county to tax i rowing bands of stock. Of this there could be no doubt. He obtained from | the board of supervisors the assess
 ment of all sheep $115 a head, and also a copy of the resolutions of the board regarding the manner of taxa ton, all of which is made a part of the report.
 Regarding Tipton's charge that the tax was not due, General Lewis quotes from an act of the Seventeenth legis- Lature: "When stock Is driven into a. county for the purpose of grazing therein during any year for which it is assessable for taxes, it shall be liable to be assessed for all taxes lev fable in that county for that year, and it shall be lawful for the proper ofii- cers to assess and collect the same at any time during that year.