The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-04-21
BOUNDING oFWARRIoRs' WIVES
Sauaws of the Hunted Ynanis Driven
From Their Homes
CFrom the san Francisco Examiner.)


At bayonet point. band of hungry,
| helpless homeless. wounded Naqui wo-
men have been driven from the lanu VI
their forefathers and thrust among stran-
gers to starVe.
! These Yaqui women and their children
are the widows and orphans OF the naqul
Indians killed in the recent resistance
! made by members of that tribe against
| the attempt of the Mexican Government
to seize their lands along the Rio 1aqui.
The manner of their going furnishes in
history a chapter of such cruelty as seems
rather to belong to the early days of the
Spanish conquest than the supposedly
civilized twentieth century.
Being alive and in the way was not the
only crime held by the Mexican authori-
ties against the Naqui women. They had
dared to join their Indian husbands,
fathers, brothers. and sweethearts in bat
tie against the Mexican foe
Presently. when their warriors lay NE
less all about them these women OF the
Yaquis knew no better than TO wall over
their dead and mourn them These
women were given no time Tor prepdrd-
ton, and if they had there was nothing
to make ready but the few extra shawls
and strips of calico and ragged blankets
that they owned. for these faithful con-
sorts of the defeated Indians had sold or
traded everything salahle or neSotiaple
belonging to them to secure firearms ana
supplies. ,e,.. ,.,., 20
the south of Guaymas While the warfare
i'm the hills was at its fiercest, the faqul
wives of those who were lighting walked
to Guaymas to get ammunition. With
silent. logged perseverance that in civil
lied women would be eNtoled as great,
white. shining virtue, but in a Aaqul
squaw is something quite too commonplace
to be commented upon or given name,
these hapless half-Clad daughters of a
savage race slowly and with difficulty
made their way over the hot. SANDY miles
that lay between them and the town. VI
money they had little or none, so II was
necessary that what they took along for
trading purposes be borne in bundles
upon the head.
They did this for love of their Indian
men. for love OF their simple homes along
| the flowing Rio. And when they had
managed TO gain what powder they could
by their bargaining they walked back
then sat them down in the hollows of the
hills to load and reload weapons for the
final fight that was fatal
When dawn cleared the shadows from
the hills where the women were walling
for their fallen braves. the Mexican
troops rode up and routed them from
their watch beside their unburied dead.
Every woman and child was ordered to
march and to be quick about it. To re-
fuse. they were told. was to be shot dead.
They obeyed. in the dull, stoical, suilen
way of the Indian.
A mounted guard escorted the misera-
BILE band to Guaymas. The women were
driven before it like so many sheep to-
ward a corral.
1t is a hard march afoot between the
| Rio Naqui and GuaNmaS-but if wOman
OF child Jagged behind. the prick of a
bayonot reused their tagging energies
Many of the women were suffering
from unattended wounds of the preceding
battle.
Much military precaution was taken at
Guaymas to prevent the escape OF the
prisoners. When they were marched to
the quartet the streets on both sides We're
lined with soldiers. 1t was like running
wounded game 70 cover-game that had
not the strength to escape if it were
given the opportunity. Some of the kind
hearted MeXicans of Guaymas there are
/ few foreigners residing there wished To
keep the women as servants and thus
provide them with homes, but the author
tiles refused.
After few days in prison the entire
band was rounded up and counted and
driven into the sea, where the women
waded to their waists with children on
their backs, to rOwbOats which conveyed
them to the bay steamer Oaxaca, which
steamed away to Yucatan.
The Mexican Government is determined
upon the determination Of the Yaquis.
that il may gain control OF the land they
occupy, the richest land for agricultural
purposes IN Old Mexico. Recently they
sent troops out to take prisoner every
Naqui they could find. The troops are re-
cruited from the most worthless classes
in Mexico. The Yaquis Of the coast tribe
are sober, Industrious. and in demand as
laborers- They are hired by the Sonora
and Sinaioa Railroad as employees in pref
erence to the dissOlute. lazy Mexican la
borers Nevertheless. they We're impris-
oned. together with drivers of mule carts
and hay wagons and other Indians by the
trainload, whose incarceration was mex
Cusabe
One Indian. section hand. had been
steadily in the railroads employ for fifteen
years. He was released after the unwind
ing of good deal OF railroad red tape
1 The prisoners were brought in under com
mand of General Torres himself MANY
We're deported immediatel, on the Demo
| crata, a Mexican warship. Eighty were
| kept until the Oaxaca could finish certain
repairs and convey them out of the coun-
| try. What has become of the Yauui
women and children who were driven from
| the Rio to Guaymas and waist deep into
| the sea2 Quien sabe2
| Nucatau is far away.