The Butte inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1901-1912, 1901-11-28

rigated ground will keep the Indians in
comfort. even in prosperity, and water
over and above what is needed to irrigate
these 2OO,O0O acres can be ustsl upon gov
eminent land which can be opened for
settlement under the homestead law UNI
der such restrictions as will return to
the government within 10 years the ac-
tual cost of the reservoir, built pri-
marily for the Indians.
Considering their lack of opportunities
and advantages, these Indians have car
RED on brave struggle against extnc-
tlon They have pursued their famous
industries of basket and pottery making
and have woven blankets from the wool
of their few sheep. Their handiwork is
scattered from one end of the country to
another, and few homes are without some
evidence of the attempt these Indians
have made to substitute manufacturing
for agriculture.
notable example of what irrigation
has done for Indians is found on the
Grow reservation in Montana. There
the government furnished the money to
build the bitches and hired the Indians
to do the work. Not only did this give
them opportunity for labor. but by the
use of the water the Crows are now be-
coming one of the most advanced and
dams in the United States.
Failure to give the Pimas a water
supply involves not only the RESPONSE
bility of their care. but a moral re-
sponsibility in destroying their only hope
of progress. A lively feeling of self-re-
spect and independence which came Of
their self-supporting career for SO many
years was strongly implanted in their
nature and can yet be resuscitated.
If a dam is built at San Carlos, which
is about so miles from the Gila reserva-
ton. water in canal from this dam
would irrigate government land outside
of the reservation. 1t would also make
possible very material reduction in the
size of the reservation, for the Indians
would not require nearly as much irri-
gated ground as they do now while the
land is arid. The reservation itself is a
fertile stretch of MESA typical of Ari-
zona. The valley of the Gila only needs
a water supply to rival the Salt River
valley, which now has a world wide rep
utation for fertility and productiveness
The life of the Indians on the ella
reservation is at present a sordid and a
hopeless sort of existence. They live in
most primitive style. many of them still
occupying the brush and mud huts of
similar character to those which were on
the land when the Spanish explorers ven-
tured into the North. These huts are
being replaced wherever possible by the
more modern adobe, or sun-dried brick,
structures.
The Pimas and Maricopas are purely
agricultural Indians and have never left
their pace of settlement unless driven
away. The Papagoes are more or less
nomadic, though under the modern sys-
tenn of Indian reservations they have
of late years been fairly we'll confined
to boundaries. If the Gila river reserva-
ton is improved as Is now proposed by
furnishing a water supply to the land,
the San Carlos Apaches. numbering
nearly 5000, would be removed from their
present location and given a portion of
the Gila reservation. 1t was the San
Carlos band of Apaches which made the
United States government the most trou-
BILE in the Indian wars of the Southwest.
From this band came Geronimo, their
fierce leader. whose capture was only eff
fected at the cost of many lives. Time
is softening the asperities of the Apache
nature, however, and while they are still
far from being civilized Indians, there is
little doubt but that with wise encour-
| agement they will turn their hands as
| readily to the plow as they did to the
| scalping knife. It has been the expert