Amador ledger., 1900-02-23
ITS ORIGIN IN THE WEST
The Indians Raised Excell-
ent Crops.
THEIR INDUSTRY HAS SINCE BEEN GIVEN UP
The Facilities For Irrigation Have
Been Recently Taken From
The Arizona Indians.


pied by the ella Indian Reservation,
grew luxuriant crops of fruit and
maize for the friendly Pima Indians.
This explorer describes them very
much as they are today. They occu
pied the same lands as at present and
were industrious farmers and irriga-
tors, as they continued to be for many
years after the acquisition of Arizona
by the United States. They have
raised corn, wheat, pumpkins, beans,
sorghum and vegetables in profusion;
they have lived in small villages and
held their lands in severalty and they
are expert weavers ofifinesblankets and
cotton fabrics. All this has been ac-
cOmplished through irrigation, prac
ticed by them since before the discov
cry of the New World.
What is the situation in this reserva-
ton today? Those philanthropists
who bewail the passing of the Ameri-
can Indian, may well turn their atten-
tion to the destitute condition of the
Pima Indians, brought about by the
push of the white settler and the
criminal neglect of the Government,
whose wards the Indians are.
The Pimas have always been friends
of the whites and enemies of the
Apaches. They gave aid and succor
to the early white pioneers and their
tepees were always open to peacable
whites or Indians when hard pressed
by the savage foe. 1t is today their
boast that their hands have never been
stained by the white mans blood. 1t
was under these conditions that they
were joined about century ago by the
Maricopas who came as fugitives from
the more powerful Yuma tribe. When
the belligerent Apaches broke out
upon the warpath, the troops of the
United States often obtained substan-
tial aid and subsistence from the gentle
Pimas. Their agriculture has been
carried on entirely by irrigation with
water diverted from the ella river.
The tribes have not only supported
themselves, but have shared their
world S goods with the poorer Indians
to the south of them not favored by
irrigation. They have learned readily
at the government Indian School and
progress towards modern civilization
has been regarded as one of the en-
couraging features of the Indian prob
lem. During the last ten years their
irrigating water-their life blood-has
been taken away from them and they
are perforce, lapsing into Incidence,
misery and vice.
The waters of the Gila, above them,
have been diverted by white settlers
and instead of waving fields of green,
they now, during the summer, look out
upon the dry parched earth. Year
after year they ploughed, and sowed and
irrigated their crops, only to see them
wither and die before maturity owing
to lack of sufficient irrigation water in
the dryer months. A few who are
favorably located at points where
Gila, can still mature their crops,
others can eke out bare existence by
hauling wood or other precariOus en-
come more Or less dependent upon
charity or have degenerated into
thieves and vagabOnds.
About 6, 600 of these Indians are de-
pendent for their subsistence upon the
lands of the Reservation which con-
tains' $50, 600 acres, while the water
supply in the ella last year, owing to
use for lands above, had not been
sufficient to irrigate ]. ZOO acres belong
ing to the Indians. Fully half the
crops planted have not produced
enough for seed, Notwithstanding the
great fertility of the soil. Two acres
per Indian of irrigated land, has been
shown by competent authority, as
ample land for their use and comfort.
Government engineers have pointed
out the solution of the problem through
the building of a storage reservoir on
the Gila which will supply water not
only for the Pimas, but for thousands
of other Indians whom the government
could then move to this reservation
and commence the process of education
and agricultural civilization. States
men have urged upon the government
the necessity for such action, from
standpoints of justice, humanity and
even economy, but thus far Congress
has turned careless ear to such en-
treaties. Had the Indians been private
American citizens, they could have
claimed their rights and enfQreed them,
but being wards of the nation, others
have come in and taken their water to
which they have had undisputed title
for four hundred years, and the gov
ernment turns indifferently away even
directing its attention to new wards
thousands of miles distant, while its
original friends and allies are left to
steal and beg an existence or starve.
The United States has expended
large sums of money for the introduce
| tion OF irrigation on the Indian reser-
vatlOns where it is desired to educate
the Indian into agricultural habits as
a means to his civilization, Here is a
tribe of Indians who have for centuries
been engaged in agriculture by irriga-
tion, and who We're, until recently the
| only successful irrigatOrs in Arizona.
They are now deprived of their water
through the agency of the white man,
directly encouraged by the United
States government. Is it not an i'm
perative obligation of honor upon the
American people that their supply
should be restored to them? The only
means lies through the construction by
the government of a storage reservoir
on the Gila. And instead of the un-
certain possibility, of elevating a saw