The Florence tribune., 1900-06-16
SAN CARLOS RESERVOIR. It Should be Built at Once by the
 Government. So Says Prof. s. M. Mccowar, ofthe Phoe-
 nix Indian School.
From the Native Ameriean.l

From the Native American.l
 Last week we had something to say about the condition of the Pima h. dians. Our remarks have caused con siderable comment Many did not know that the Pimas were otherwise than prosperous, nor did they care. They were not their brothers keeper, and . little suffering more or less among band of redskins was not of sufficient moment to stir the torpid blood of compassion.
 Besides, this suffering is here, at home, among our own people and not away off in distant Africa or India, and that makes all the difference in the world. So many of our people are afflicted with hyperopia to such an ex- tent that in gazing at the distant stars they entirely overlook the dropping daisies at their feet.
 Somebody starts the story that the natives of India are literally starving to death, and immediately the imagina tion eonjures up horrible pictures of skeleton forms, famished faces and snnlSen eyes. Ships are loaded with grain, money is forwarded, and-we rest in the happy consciousness that we nave done our duty.
 Now, am not one go into ecstaeies of thrilling horror over the wrongs of thesIndian. His fate was self-invited. Fate does not intrude. He is a dog that does our bidding. For every wrong done him the Indian has a ssalp for every crime he fertilized the soil with pale-face blood; and for every gallows he gave burning stake. His color entities him to no favoritisln.
 A great deal of sympathy is wasted on the Indians. The Cooper type dis appeared long ago; he vanished with the last of the Mohicans, and those we have to-day are just crude bits of human nature, possessing no very seri- ous faults and many negative virtues. But the Pima Indian is deserving of consideration. The land of the Gila has been his home for generations. He loves il, and it has been gracious to him. He was here when the white man came and befriended him. He gave them to eat and to drink and sought not to destroy. He sat ut the feet of the pale face and drank of his knowledge and two thousand have learned to love his God. No white man ever went to a Pima lodge and was turned away hungry.
 The years have passed aud the whites have multiplied many, many times. They are the dominant party now. Un- willingly they have robbed the Indian of his means of livelihood. They have taken away his water, without which the land is desert and of no value, and the poor Pima stares at his barren fields and wonders how he has an gered his God.
 We are not blaming the white man. at all. He and the Indians are work ing for the same results, but with vastly different degrees Of energy and intelligence. The white man will win, as he always does, and the Indian will submit to the inevitable, come to the cities, be shifted here, there nd every where, learn the white mans faults and not his virtues, and in few years vanish and become memory.
 But is this necessary? It is the privilege of the government to befriend and protect it's subjects. The Pimas and Papagos are subjects and deserv- ing. They seek not aims but work. They have never been beggars, but they may be driven to beggary. The Papagos will not suffer too keenly. They are expert thieves when the occasion demands, and there are many cattle roaming the mountains and plains of Arizona. They will steal, and God will be looking in another di- rection, and then the whites will retaliate.
 Why not build the San Carlos reser- voir NOW?
 Must this question be discussed for fifty years while nation starves2 Why not do as England has done in India where the conditions are similar? Must we wait .until grim death has reaped his glorious harvest?
 S. M. MCGOWAN.
 u----
 Danvers, Mass, has asked the Massa-