The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1898-03-12
(contlnued next weekly
The PIMA INDIANS.
They Are Farmers and Have Never Shed
q White Mans Blood.

Mention which l have seen somewhere
lately of my friend Antonito, the Pima
chief, who was educated al Hampton
Institute III Virginia, reminds me OF my
long acquaintance with his grandfather,
Antonio Azul, whom l met first at the
Pima villages in Arizona in 1854. He
was a very good man. Antonito's fa-
Their, Antonio, was always a good friend
Of mine. too. We were together in San
Francisco i'll 1864, when l was superin-
tendent of Indian affairs under Presi-
dent Lincoln. We made the journey
together from San Francisco to the
Pima villages. Ross Brown was with
US and wrote an account of the trip.
Archbishop Allcmany, in California,
asked me to take n couple of priests
along-Father Bosco and Father Messia,
one an Italian and the other a French
man. They preached at Pima, and
told the Indians all about God.
Then we went on to Tucson and es-
tablishcd the Jesuit priests in the Old
Mission of San Xavier del Bac, which
they had founded q hundred years be-
fore.
1t was a strange scene when the cav
alcade entered the old courtyard of the
Mission. Jose Victoriano Solorse, the
chief Of the Papagos, had had the old
church edilice cleaned and ornamented,
and as soon us we came in sight the
Papagos began firing rockets and ring
ing bells in rejoicing. They were a
branch of the Pima tribe, and were
called Papagos from Papconia, meaning
baptized" or "Christianized."
The Pimas are a very remarkable
tribe of Indians, and l have never
known of their shedding a white mans
blood. They were earning their own
living by agriculture when the Span
iards first came among them in 1912.
The government of the United Statea
feeds, clothes and arms the Apacha
%scoundrels to murder and rob its citi"
zens, but leaves the Pimas to shift for
themselves. This is not right. Tho
Apaches have robbed the Spaniards,
Mexicans and Americans for three hun
dred years, but the Pimas have never
robbed anybody.
l can remember when the emigrants
to California would have starved on the
journey but for tho grain and vegeta.
bles the Pimas had raised; and l havo
many times known the Pimas 10 gir1
food TO emigrants who had no money
or anything else to pay with. l myself
have slept us safely in the Pima village.
as could in Washington. and when we
vent out against the Apaches the Pimas
never n away.
That recalls to mind a curious custom
when we returned from n campaign; if
the Pinlas had killed any Apaches, they
painted themselves black aud sustained
from going to their homes; but if they
were bloodless they painted themselves
white and entered into the joys Of mat
rimony.
The Pi.nas have many Jewish Gus
toms, especially in dealing with women.
Who're they obtained them puzzles ME
TO guess. Their. worship of the sun is
IN equally insoluble mystery; where
did they learn thatp
Then their practice of swapping
wives in place of getting adivorce is an
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 u sentinel.
One day, after siesta. l went out and
found Louis walking about with his arm
around another Indian, Pima fashion.
I asked him:
"Who IS that?"
"That is my brother-in-law," he re.
piled.
"Did you marry his sister"
"No."
"pid he marry your %sistcrP'
"No."
"1'hen how in tho name of common
sense is he your hrothcr-in-lawp"
"He married my wife,"
1t turned out that they had amicably
exchanged partners.
What u commentary on the wasteful
process of divorce as we know tic.
d. loston, in Kate Fields Washinqton.