The Florence tribune., 1900-05-19
P,MAs AND pAPaeos.
Great Distress Among These two Peace
 ful Tribes.

| tions on the Pima and Papago reserva- tion is from the pen of Professor S. NJ. Mecowan, superintendent of the Phoenix Indian school, and was pub lished in the last issue of the Native American, the school paper:
 "A trip over the reservation last week demonstrated the fact that the Pima Indians are in deplorable con dition. Never before in the history of the tribe have they been so destitute nor the prospects for immediate inn provement more discouraging. Many of these deserving Indians, whose l proudest boast is that they know not the color of the white mans blood :, have nothing to eat now but mescal and old mesquite beans. Last year. s crop of wheat is entirely exhausted and the new crop will not be ripe for some weeks. And the worst of it is that when the new crop ripeus there will be 50 little of it, owing to the drouth, that very few weeks will see all l gone.
 "This destitut ion is in no sense due to the Indians laziness or ina ctivity. The Pima Indians are not lazy. On the contrary, they are ever ready to work, and work hard for any reasonable com pensation. Their present distress is due to the lack of water for their crops.
 This scarcity of water is due to two causes. One is the extraordinary l dronth of the past two years and the other to the fact that white settlers have pre-empted all the water flowing above ground above their reservation, 1 leaving none, or very little during floods, to get so far as their planting grounds.
 "We are not blaming the white set tiers for their action. We cannot. They have as much right to life and the pur- suit of happiness as their red brothers. But this fact does not lessen the dis tress among the Indians.
 l Another feature peculiar to the Pima situation is the suffering, keen and calamitous, that is inevitable to the Papago nation. This tribe, um- bering several thousand people, lives in the vast dry section south of Tucson They have no water for irrigation and can raise nothing during dry season They are Pima parasites. When tn ( bloom is on the wheat, the Papagos drift north and harvest the crops oi the more fortunate Pimas on shares l This year there is no hope, for there are no crops.
 "These two tribes are plunged in 8 nightfall of gloom, so dense that the eye of the most enthusiastic optimisi among them cannot perceive the glim- mer of the star of hope.
 "Yet there is hope. Congress has just appropriated $3S, ,o0O for their re lief. This means that $33, 900 will be spent for wheat and beef, which will be issued to the old Indians, and eaten No effort will be made, of course, tc get value received for this money. Il would smack too much of common sense to expend this money on perma- nent and much needed improvements and employ these Indians, who crave work, not bread. This would be too radical departure from the old Indian policy that has always encouraged idleness and pauperism rather than industry and independence.
 'The Pimas are not coffee-coolers. They are not loafers, not beggars nol drones. A combination of circum, stances has brought destitution. These conditions are not temporary, nor have they come suddenly. A climax has been reached in Pima affairs, and nc improvement can be expected until the government secures permanent water supplies.
 "Our friends in the east will waste no tears of sympathy on the poor white trash, but if the matter is worked properly, all the resources of the gov ernment will be turned over to the noble red man. Then let us, as the Indians friends, see that he is helped along the right lines. Don't let us make paupers of them. Let us not throw pearls before swine, but let us hel him to help himself.
 "Now, there is the Buttes reservoir. Nature designed that basin and placed those buttes with wonderful foresight. She evidently had an inkling of future necessities, and laid her great plans cons ago, leaving details to be worked out by mans genius. Reports of en- gineers make it matter of certainty that there will be plenty of water to fill this reservoir /; that the building of g dam is simple and feasible; that it would impound 2O5,O00 acre feet of water-enough to irrigate nearly 100,- <-e :