The Florence tribune., 1901-05-04
THE PIMA INDIANS.
By W. ". WILSON. late Superintendent oi the Pima Indian School Sacaton,
 Arf11na
Arizona.l

and there is every reason to believe that 1t is true.
 Ever since the Franciscan fathers re- turned to build up the missions that the Jesuits were compelled to abandon in l767, the Pimas have been friendly to the whites.
 When the overland stage line from Tucson to Yuma was running, the stage was considered safe from attack while it was within reach of the Pima villages a.ong the Gila.
 The Pimas claim that they came into this section from the east and settled on the Gila, and have ever since inhabited the country that lies be- tween the Gila river on the north and the Gulf of California on the south. The whole section was divided by the Spaniards into Pimeria Alta,. extend ing from the Gila river to the present line of Mexico, and Pimeria Baja, which lies within the western half of the present state of Sonora.
 When the Spanish, padres began their pious work they found ripe harvest among the Pimas, about one-third of whom embrac ed the new religion and were baptised; at the same time they cut off their hair to distinguish them from their unconve-ted brethren, who bestowed on them the name of Papa goes, or followers of the Pope, and from this time dates the division of the great Pima nation.
 The Pimas have remained along the Gila while the Papagoes have led a more precarious existence by moving to and fro as the rains were more or less abundant.
 The Pimas claim that they allow their hair to grow us challenge to their hereditary enemies, the Apaches, with whom they have always been at war. It is certain that the Maricopas have several times found a refuge among them when attacked by the Yuma Apacbes.
 Being an agricultural people, they are quite skillful in irrigation, and they show remarkable success in cut ting their ditches. Even. an engineer with his instruments. cannot do better work than they do with few, crooked poles and colored rags, to mark the course they intend to follow.
 In former years these people have sold as much as one million, two hun dred thousand pounds ofgrain to the traders, and always had surplus to sell after taking out what they needed for home consumption but for the past ten years the production of graiu has been decreasing as steadily as the supply of water in the Gila river, and in precisely the same ratio.
 There are few white men who would go to the expense and labor of sowing a crop of, grain every fall for four or five years in succession, only, to see it die in the spring for the want of water, but there are parts of the Pima reserva- tion where the Indians have done this ,I for several years in the past.
 They are every year becoming more dependent on, the government for 8 support, and the time is at hand when the sturdy, independent Pimas will be- come the same shiftless,, wretched beggars that the plains Indians are un. less some means can be devised for giving them water for irrigation, tc which they are accustomed aud which they have right to expect. \ The Government has shown disposi <. tion to help them recently in the only feasible way, which is by. building 2 storage reservoir on the Gila, and il , seemed almost accomplished at the lasi session of Congress by tue proposition !. to appropriate $100,000 for that pur pose, but it failed at the very close oi the session from some of the many } causes that tend to obstruct legislation : Some one has proposed the cutting 3 of canal or tunnel into the uDderfov 5 of the Gila valley, with the idea tha 3 it would bring the water to the sur . face, but the same cause that allowel
 the water to sink into the soil at frs
 would operate to keep 1t there, be
 cause there is porous subsoil througl {. which it slowly percolates, and gravity will keep the water always fowin . along the lowest course it can find.
 Irrigation is a new thing to man :. portions-of this country, but asit hs V been practiced by the Pimas for hur
 dreds of years, we can learn somethin
 even from them about the methods
 hand ling, water.
 The numerous ruins along the Gi = show that it as once populous va
 ley, and the remains of their irrigatir
 ditches tell at once the story Of u
 prosperity and disappearance of pc
 pie who had plenty of water for agl
 culture and then either died out = moved away because it failed.