Arizona republican., 1899-05-22
A SONS REVENGE
(By c. J. Dyer.)

During the year 1865 the Navajo h. | dians of northern Arizona for some real or fancied grievance put on their
 war paint and carried on . series oi
 raids against al whites they could
 reach, and s.1ch were their numbers
 and activity they created the greatest i alarm for a hundred miles on all sides | of their arIcient stronghold
 The NavajCiS were rich, owning thou sands of ponies, living in villages and planting corn and gardens and raising fruits of various kinds They had thousands of peach trees. These peo- Die numbered from twelve to fifteen thousand, among when were three
 thousand warriors mostly armed with
 bclHs and arrows. TrCcp5 were sent
 to the Navajo country to Subdue them.
 Headquarters were mad3 at old Fort
 Se.den and from this point the troops
 would make raids, which lasted for weeks. into the Navajo strongholds.
 Nearly every day the soldiers had
 skirmishGs with the Indians, who
 fought from behind rocks or from all
 most inaccessible cliffs One day after
 skirmish with the Indians in which
 the soldiers had driven them from one
 of their rocky retreats they found an
 Indian boy hid in the rocks. He had
 been shot through the leg The boy,
 who was only about 12 years old, was
 in war paint, and although the shot
 had broken his leg and he was suffer-
 ing great pain his face did not show that he was concerned with his wound or anything going on around him.
 Two of the soldiers carried him out of the rccks to a level piece of ground and surgeon dressed the wound with the ESst means he had at hand and then as the troop was about to start back tC the fort, having accomplished the purpose Of the expedition in de- strOying several Indian villages, tho question was raised as to what should be done with the Navajo Kid, as enc of the soldiers had chIistened him. but this question was soon settldi,. for ii was thought the Kid might be the sen of some important chief among the Navajos and by taking him to the fort he could be held as a hostage for bringing the Indians to terms soor,:F. So several blankets were put on cne Cf the pack animals, and the young In dian was placed on them. With all the stcicism of his race and apparently indifferent es to his fate, the Kids animal was led ahead and the soldiers followed During the afternoon, after
 q ride of eighteen miles, the troop reached the first water since leaving camp in tkis morning, and here it stopped for the night The Kid was iald on some blankets and made as comfortable as possible. One of the scouts who could talk the Navajo lan- guage tried to get him to talk but when questioned his black eyes only looked stolidly at the sky as he lay on his back and said nothing
 That night the usual precautions were taken to prevent being surprised by night attack of the Indians; guards were posted out with instruc- tiOns to keep a close watch and to fire upon any suspicious object which did not stop at the usual call TCt prevent any little scheme of the Kid to escape, although he appeared helpless, one of the scouts was detailed to sit near him and keep watch Cn him during the night
 The night was dark and on different peaks of the mountains could be seen the Indian signal fires, but with the exception of the occasional hooting of an owl or the crying of a band of coyotes all was still Twelve o'clock had passed when the scout who was the Kid reached over and touching me, asked in a low tcGre, Hear anything?' I listened Moth