Arizona republican., 1902-05-27

system. At a cost of about two mill
 lion dollars, or less than the cost of
 six years rations. a reservoir can be built at San Carlos, which will make
 400 Pimas, $50 Maricopas, 2700 Papa
 goes and about 2750 San Carlos Apaches
 entirely self supporting.
 The Pima Indians have always been friends of the white people and enemies
 of the Apache. They gave succor and
 assistance to the early white settlers,
 and their doors were always open to
 peaceable whites or Indians hard
 pressed by savage foes. It is the boast
 of the Pimas that they do not know the
 color of the white mans blood. It
 was under these conditions that, about
 one hundred years ago, the fugitive Maricopas came, driven from their
 earlier home by the powerful and war | like Yumas. When the United States
 troops were engaged in the Apache campaign they often obtained substan- 1 tial aid and refuge in the settlement of | the Pimas.
 | The settlement of Arizona is pro-
 gressing rapidly. Every drop of water
 which can be secured for irrigation
 purposes is eagerly sought by the white
 settler. The Indian having no protcc- | tion in the courts in the matter of water rights, is at the mercy of every
 new conner. Great dams have been
 built across the Gila and ditches cost | ing thousands of dollars have been con-
 structed to carry water from the river bed to the fertile government land
 which has been taken up under the
 government law.
 The attention of congress has been |
 the Gila rier, but, unfortunately for the Indians, it is possible to store more va
 ter in the proposed reservoir at San Carlos than is necessary for the Jn-
 dians. and the opponents oi national
 irrigation are suspicious that under the
 guise of assisting the Indians the ir.
 rigation advocates will commit con.
 gress to the policy of furnishing a va ter supply for land open to public set tlement.
 The government has already spent considerable money in providing irri-
 gation works for Indians in the arid
 regions, but in no instance has there been enough water consumed by these works to be used outside of Indian land. There are about ,000 acres of land in the Gila River reservation. It is estimated that a S2,000, 900 reservoir will provide sufficient additional water | to irrigate nearly 100000 acres. Twen- ty thousand acres of irrigated land would keep the Indians in comfort, even in prosperity. and the water over and above what is needed to irrigate these GOO acres can be used upon gov ernment land which can be opened fer settlement under the homestead law,
 under such restrictions as will return to the government within ten years the actual cost of the reservoir built
 primarily for the Indians.
 If a dam is built at San Carlos which
 is about fifty miles from the Gila res ervation, water in a canal from this dam would irrigate government land outside the reservation. It would also
 make possible very material reduc- tion in the size of the reservation, for the Indians would not require nearly
 as much irrigated ground as they dc
 now while the land is arid. The res ervation itself is a fertile strip of mesa typical of Arizona. The valley of the Gila only needs water supply to rival the Salt River valley, which now has
 world wide reputation for fertility and
 productiveness.
 The life of the Indians on the Gila
 reservation is at present a sordid and l a hopeless sort of existence. They live l in most primitive style, many of therl still occupying the brush-and- mud nuts i of a similar character to those which
 were on the land when the Spanish ex- plorers ventured into the north. These 1 huts are being replaced wherever possi- | ble, by the nor emodern adobe house. | The Pimas and Maricopas are purely | agricultural Indians, and have never | left their place of settlement unless | driven away. The Papagos are more
 CT less nomadic. though under the mod | ern system of reservations they have ! of late years been fairly well confined l to boundaries. If the Gila River reser-
 vation is improved, as is now proposed,
 by furnishing a water supply to the | land, the San Carlos Apaches, number ing nearly 5000 would be moved from 1 their present location. and given DOT | tion of the Gila reservation. It was the i San Carlos band of Apaches which
 made the United States government
 the most trouble in the Indian wars of ! the southwest. From this band came l Geronimo, their fierce leader, whose capture was only effected at the cost
 of many lives and vast expenditure ! Of money. Time is softening the as-
 perities of the Apache nature, however, and while they are far from being civil ] ized Indians, there is little doubt but
 that with wise encoura cement they sill | turn their hands as rapidly to the blow as they did to the scaiping knife