The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-08-24
THE YAQUIS PASSING
SPARTAN TRIBE PERISHING
FAST IN MEXICO.
Few Left Of the Band-Their Half
Century Battle for Freedom
Hatred Of the Spanish-Wo-
men and Children Aid in
Desperate Conflict.
Los Angeles (cal) Letter in New York

their hopeless guerilla warfare in Sonora
and Chihuahua, and that seems very I'M
likely. The Yaquis are truly the Spar
tans of America.
They have taken a solemn vow never
to cease fighting for their rights. If they
keep up this battling against such des-
perate odds it is only a matter of time
when there will be no Yaquis left to re-
new the VOW.
1T is a pity that the record of their
long years of warfare with Mexico has
nst been preserved. The Yaquis are nat
ursi soldiers. Some of the strategy of
their subchiefs is astonishing and ought
to be put before readers.
For fifty-two years practically the
YaQuis and Mexicans have been at war.
In 1S77-S there was cessation of hos
tilities for sixteen months, but both Mex
leans and Yaquis went armed just the
same.
In May. 1897, the Yaquis made treaty
of peace with Mexico at Ortiz. and for
about two years the Mexican army
thought 1t had at last done with fighting
the Yaqus. only to have the old tribal
spirit of revenge break out anew. From
that time to this some 5000 Mexican SOL
diers have been kept busy in campaigns
against the Yaquis.
The war has been most agrgessively
fought and the Yaquis have been more
reckless than ever before. Last year. 1t
Is estimated that the Yaduis lost some
BOO of their braves in war, and since last
January they have lost even more than
that. In one skrmish, on June 4, sixty
miles south of TORN, the Mexicans lost
twenty-five and the Yaquis nearly sixty.
All the engagements between the Mexi-
cans and the Yaquis in the last two years
have resulted in losses doubly and trebly
severer to the Yaquis than to the Next
cans.
American miners, cattlemen and
ranchers in Northern Mexico find the va
auis an Industrious. Flooding, highly re-
ligious race, who have been taught from
childhood to hate Mexico and Mexicans
- DIAL Ixrytth 81.
Yaqus make sacrifices to aid them in
the war with Mexico.
The women do mems work In the
fields that their husbands and brothers
may be in the mountains fighting the
common enemy. Old and young starve
and stint to provide money for buying
arms and ammunition for the Yaqui
brave. Boys of IL and II years are train
ed to endure hardships and to bear arms.
and at Is or 16 go out into the mountain
Businesses to fight Mexico.
THE Yaqus are devout Roman Catho-
lies and they will not have priests among
them of Spanish origin. They are farm
ers. cattle ranchmen and miners, All are
poor in pocket and live in little adobe
houses among the Santa Inez Mountains.
and along the Yadui River, which flows
into the Gulf of California. TORN is the
chief town of the Yaqui country and is
also the military headquarters of the
Third zone in Mexico.
THE Yaquis say that they are the only
people in Mexico who have preserved
their tribal o-ganiza ton and legends from
the pre-conquest DAYS. When Cortez came
TO Mexico in 1919 there were more than
100000 in the tribe. In one war against
Coronado in 1886 the Yaquis lost $4,000
men:
against the Spanish conquistadores, and
they paid for their patriotism by losing
some 10000 more men during the Coro-
nado campaigns in Northern Mexico
When Mexico gained her independence in
n
about 10000.
The undying hate of Yaquis for the
Spanish dates from the conquest. Yaqui
lore deals with the barbarities inflicted
upon the tribe because secret treasure
vaults and gold mines were not revealed
to the Spanish army. Five aboriginal
to the ground during the long years that
the unarmed tribe fought the soldiers of
Spain.
when Mexico rose in rebellion against
Spain the remnant of the great tribe join
ed heartily in the war. The Yaquis were
General Iturhide's best soldiers. They
had been waiting nearly three centuries
to strike at their old prosecutors and
tyrants. The Yaqui women even camped
on the battlefield with their husbands and
sons.
when Mexico was free the Yaquis re-
turned to their homes among the noun
tains and valleys of Sonora. For twenty
five years the tribe was at peace. 1t de-
veloped its fields. reopened its mines and
for the first time since Cortez increased
rather than diminished in population
'The Yaquis are famous workers. and
in 1s42 and in 1S45 were widely known for
their profitable grain fields and silver
mines. When the American army march
ed into Mexico in 1S47 the Yaqus could
not at first be coaxed from the noun
tains and valleys of Sonora to join the
Mexicans. Finally on promises that ad-
ditional land would be given them, some
5000 Yaqui braves Joined the Mexican
forces.
From the time of the treaty of Quad
eloupe Hidalgo in February, 1S4S. until
ut peace with Mexico Their grievance
was that the Mexican Government had
not kept its promises of more land.
They have spent their earnings of
fifty years and sacrificed many thousand
lives in their warfare. The Mexican Gov
eminent lost 5000 soldiers in the same
time.
became decimated by its ceaseless strug-
giles the Yaouis gained as much as the
Mexicans, and on some occasions the
Yaquis Vanquished their more powerful
enemy. Almost every square mile of the
mountains and valleys in Eastern Sonora
and Northern Chihuahua has been the
scene of an engagement between the
Spartan-like Yaquis and the Mexican
army.
''Yaqui women and girls have had their
share in the long fight for tribal rights
by earning money for buying ammuni-
llOn TOT lHe SOLDIERS. III tHt ShIiiiilti VI
1892 some Yaqui women in mons clothes
were found among the dead after skirm-
fishes.
The youths are taught to become
sharpshooters at 16. They have bought
thousands of improved rifles from the
Americans and have gone without food
TO buy cartridges. Every centavo that
the men, women and children could earn
as laborers in the silver mines, as fishers
on the Gulf of California as farmers
and railroad laborers. has been contrib
uted to the tribe fund for prosecuting
the war.
1.-The tribe had a remarkable chief
named Cajemt, an Indian born in Chi
huahua about 1910 and educated in a
mission school In California. He was 8
lieutenant in the Mexican army for sew
eral years. and Governor in the Yaou
country until 1873. when the Yaquis, un
der Cajemrs direction held a convention
and declared themselves free from tht
woke of Mexico.
THE Mexican Government forthwith
trebled its army in the field. and tn,
hardest campaign in all Yaqui warfar,
began The tribal army was led by Cal
emf. and the Mexican forces by Genera
For seven years the Yaquis and Mex
teams faced each other. and Oftenest thu
Mexicans were defeated. Cajemi wa!
emhushed and slain in 1886 and Will,
tbe tribe apparently gave up fighting FOL
their political freedom. they We're Sc
cretIv renewing their resources and pre-
naring 10 strike the Mexican army heav1e
blows for its killing of the Yaqui hero
n November 1899 the Ysquis were
again in rebellion against the Mexican
Government, and the war was continued