Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1899-09-15

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of. the pueblos during the yea At Co.
chit twenty Indians died of the small
poX. In another pueblo fifty-seven died.
The smallpox was carried from Zuni to
orders and attended the Acoma festival.
All the Indians were vaccinated, but in
most cases the vaccination proved inef-
fectual, because the vaccine points used
seemed unsatisfactory. The epidemic
spread through the whole territory. At
present the health of the Pueblos is
good.
A majority of the Pueblos are sole
owners of the irrigating bitches from
which they are enabled to supply their
lands with water. Some of these are
among the best bitches in their parts
of the territory, and supply the Pueblos
with an abundance of water. In some
of the pueblos, however, the supply of
water is inadequate for all the bitches
and there is frequent scarcity. The In
dams are engaged in considerable liti-
cation over ditch and water rights with
neighboring settlers. The Indians are
also much imposed upon by trespassers
upon their land. The lawsuits entail
considerable expense, which the Indians
are not in a position to incur without
sacrifice of some of their farming land
and thus depriving themselves of future
means of subsistence.
On account of the scarcity of rain
during the early part of the season,
there having been practically no rain
fall from October until July in any of
the country occupied by them, the va
rious crops on which they depend for a
living are in most cases a complete fail
ure. Corn was planted in the dust in
the hope hat rain would fall and sup
ply water for irrigation, but the rain
did not come, and consequently the seed
did not terminate. In most cases what
little water was found in the streams
wa the subject of continual dispute be-
tween the various parties owning wa
ter rights, non of them being able to
secure the amount Of water usually APP
propriated. In addition to failure of the
cereals, the late frosts in the spring de-
stroyed all the fruit, so that the mag
nificent fruit trees which furnish a large
part Of the food of the people are this
year of use only for their shade. Last
year the great poverty of two of the
pueblos was such that it was necessary
to extend government aid in order to
prevent starvation. Every appearance
points to the fact that through no fault
of their own many of the Indians will
be OIL the point of absolute starvation,
and it will be necessary to extend far
more aid than last year to prevent num-
bers of them from dying from hunger.
A very conservative estimate of the
value of products of Indian labor sold
amount at $50, 900. Those figures show
that the Pueblos are worthy of the ut
most consideration, and are not afflict-
ed with the %proverbial laziness of some
other Indian tribes of the United States.
They have always been a self-sustain-
ing people. living in peace with their
neighbors. Their disposition to permit
themselves to be imposed upon rather
than engage in strife is taken advan-
tage of, and thus they lose some rights
which belong to them. They own 1924
horses, 400 mules, 3,O16 burros, 3,164 cat
tie, 1913 swine, 70,332 sheep, 1920 goats
and 1871 domestic fowls.
Interesting data with regard to the
Jicarilla reservation will be given in an
other article.