The times., 1899-11-16
FILED FORMAL PROTEST.
Indians Of the Pueblo Reservation
See Secretary Hitchcock.
They Oppose the Invasion of Their
Territory by an Irrigation Com
pany-Pedro Perea, Delegate to
Congress From New Mexico. Ex-
plains the Position of the Red Men

Hon. Pedro Perea, Delegate 10 Congress
from New Mexico who is in the city with
a delegation of Pueblo Indians for the pur-
pose of protesting against the construc-
tlon of an irrigating canal through the
Pueblo reservation in New Mexico. filed
a formal Protest with the Secretary OF the
Interior yesterday. Several days ago the
same matter was called to the attention
of the Indian Commissioner, but that off
ciaI indicated that it properly belonged
to the Interior Department
Mr.. Perea explained the situation TO a
Times reporter yesterday as follows:
The Pueblo reservation is parceled out
into eight subdivisions, each of which is
about six miles square, and the whole is
situated near the centre of New Mexico.
A popularity about the PuebIos is that in
these eight subdivisions there are six or
seven different dialects spoken. and the In
dians from one subdivision do not under
stand clearly the dialect of the PuebIos in
the adjoining subdivision. In general con-
versation they speak New Mexican Span
ish. which all of the Pueblos understand.
Il estimate that altogether on the res
eryation there are about 10000 Pueblo In
dians. They are self-supporting farmers,
but hold their land in common. They buy
their own farming utensils and supplies,
and the occasion is very rare when they
ask anything of the Government They are
OF an Independent spirit peaceable, and
never have given the Government trouble.
They were never a fighting nation, and
generally they pay their debts Their hab-
its are, generally speaking, good, but some
of the more civilized ones have a great
fondness for strong drink. The less civ
iliZed Pueblos seldom touch it.
Each branch of the PueblOS governs it.
self by tribal laws, promulgated by coun-
ell composed of the leading men and pre-
sided over by the governor, which high
official is elected annually.
The canal which the Albuquerque Land
and Irrigation Company proposes TO con-
struct is in my judgment an outrage en-
these people and the white farmers, for
when that canal is built the Indians and
whites will have to buy water absolutely
necessary to irrigate their lands or have
them made desolate and valueless, and
they are too poor to do this. The country
is now we'll watered naturally by the Rio
Grande River, but a canal as proposed
would absorb all Of the water from the
river in the dry season and would then
not have a sufficient quantity TO supply
the lands 1t proposes to irrigate The
scheme OF the company is purely a specu-
lative one. having for its object the sale
of water to the farmers, and the gobbling
up Of all the land it can possibly seize.
The plans for the canal provide for its
tapping the Rio Grande River at a point
thirty miles north of Albuquerque. The
headworks and dam for this canal are to be
located just south of the lands of the
Pueblo reservation, and the canal itself is
to pass through 1t, touching San Felipe,
Pueblo. Santa Ana, and Santa, subdivi-
sions OF the reservation, and the villages
and towns of Algodones, Bernalillo, Ala
media, and others AT the point where the
Rio Grande is to be tapped the river during
the spring floods is but $50 yards wide and
shallow. There is no navigation there. In
the dry season the river shrinks TO four
or five bitches, each about three yards
wide, and through which but very little
water flows II provides but a scanty sup
ply in its present condition for the Indian
reservation, and would furnish no water
at all If the forty-foot deep canal taps
it. The canal would require all the water
that twenty bitches could supply
These bitches which combine to make
the Rio Grande, at this point cross and re-
cross the line of the proposed canal many
times, and their entire supply would be alb
sorbed by 1t. Some Of these bitches are