The St. Johns herald., 1900-04-21
Irrigation
 Matters.
GAUNT FAMINE AMONG INDIA'S NATIVES, Calls Attention to Needed Relief for Natives of America.

l NdiIS AGtSulIOH IO N6GuSu heIISI for Natives of America. The cry of distress has gone ul from famine stricken India and thu
 civilized world is about to reach ;
 helping hand forth 10 relieve il
 part the misery caused througl
 lack of rainfall. America as usua
 is foremost in such work, and al- ready many subscriptions have
 been started and many contribu tions received. Probably every re
 ligios journal in the land is receiv- ing money from generous Ameri-
 cans who have been stirred to pity by the accounts of the terrible
 wants existing in the far eastern
 peninsula.
 Yet while those noble men aud
 women who would assist the star
 wing wretches of India are putting
 a hand down into a pocket for the
 saving of those of far and distant
 land, they might probably with the
 other hand draw forth contri6u-
 ton or exert their influence in be-
 half of people in our very midst
 who are reduced to starvation, and
 this, too, through the fault of the
 great government of the free Unit ed States.
 On the Gila Indian Reservation at Sacaton, Arizona, live eight tho sand Pima and Papago Indians and here they are known to have lived for four hundred years, prob ably, however, owning the land and farming 1t before the White man set foot in America, their annual crops of maize and vegetables as- sured by the waters which they di, verted from the Rio Gila. Yet to- day they stand robbed of their birthright and reduced to starva- tion through the criminal neglect of the American Nation to provide for them it's wards.
 Nor have these Indians been troublesome to the government. On the contrary they have always been real friends of the whites and have rendered invaluable assist ance to cur troops in their cam paigns against the treacherous Apaches. Today one thousand of the Pimas have given up their saw age customs and are educated members of Christian churches. By long residence, occupation and use they have q prior right to the water from the Gila River where with they have always irrigated their little farms. Does not their case appeal strongly to every American who is preparing to as sist the starving of India? Have we not some duties to perform at home, as we'll as to assist the des- titute of distant lands? Is it not the part of every citizen of this Republic to use his influence in the direction of making provision for these faithful Indians? 4 de- mand by American citizens to see simple justice done them would be 1 no expression of a sickly spinless sentiment bewaiing the cruel treat ment of the American Indians, such as has 0vertaken treacherOus and murderous bands of Red men for as stated, these natives of the l soil have always been friendly to the Whites, their boast being that their hands have never been stain, ed with White mems blood.
 The destitute condition of the Pimas is no new story. Their pow erty has been increasing year by | year and the authorities have stood | by and allowed their irrigation wa ter taken from them. The govern ment engineer corps has pointed | out the solution of the problem through the construction of a stor- age reservoir on the, Gila which will supply water not only for the Pimas and the Papagos, but for thousands of other Indians whom the government could then move to this reservation and commence the process of education and agri- cultural civilization.