Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1903-09-03
BRAVE YAQUI WOMEN.
May Now Pose ms the Spartans Of
America.

In some respects tho Yaqui women Of
northern Mexico are peerless throughout
the world. generation ago General
Sherman said that the Yaquis were the
Spartans Of America. Had he lived till
now he might have added that the wives
ana daughters of the Yaquis are the
modern Amazons, for the women Of that
Indian tribe are active participants in
the interminabe warfare that the Yaquis
wage against the Mexican soldicry.
Here is a bit of recent official state
ment made by Surgeon Joe Batiste AL
vardo of Guaymas, Mexico, to General
Torres, commander of the Third Zone
in the republic:
give Naqui women soldiers captured
by the Mcxicans were in the public hos
pitfalls on the outskirts of Guaymas last
month. Each had a gunshot wound. None
uttered complaint at any time, no matter
what her suffering might be. Ono WON
ans hand was half shot away, the result
of a bullet wound two years ago. She
said she had gone back to her husband
in the Yaqui camp as soon as the hand
healed. and that she would stick to her
share in the war with Mexico until she
was killed. One of the women in the
hospital died with blood poisoning from
saber cut in the head. ] amputated
one young Yaqui woman soldiers leg
at the knee"
is, outlines Significantly the heroic part
played by the feminine members of the
great YaQui tribe in its rebellion against
the authority of President Diaz in Mexico.
Down among the lonely canyons and
across the yellow, sandy wastes of Son
ora and Chihuahua, Mexico, tragedies
told by the rurales and army officers tes-
tify to the marvellous daring and physi-
cal endurance of the Yaqui women. whose
one idea in life is to die with their faces
to the Mexican foe The principle that
fires the blood in their veins to murder
Gus heat is as precious to their savage
breasts as that which has urged any peo-
pie to fight against debating and en-
croachng power. They refuse to have
their abiding places chalked out by hated
hands upon the land that was their own
for centuries, and for possession Of which
they have fought since that day that
Cortez came.
In every camp of Mexican soldiers
Veracious anecdotes are related Of young,
strong and graceful Yaqui women, who,
leaving their rude homes, have gone a.
mong the gulches and mountain passes
to risk their lives by shot and she'll, to
endure the awful privations of war and
to shoot and STAY Mexicans, just as
their fathers and brothers and husbands
are doing. Daily the Mexican army Of
fcers tell of Yaqui girls who have been
drilled in the work of a soldier from
their early youth. and who have looked
upon a soldiers life as a sacred duty
in defense of ancient tribal rights.
only the Yaquis know in what number
the women soldiers are engaging In the
fierce war the tribe is waging upon Mexi-
co. The storekeepers at Nogales. the
American Mexican town on the border
between Arizona and Sonora. says that
nearly every week Yaqui woman comes
JriD int Loo
with Sl6 or SIS in silver about her person,
and that with this she will buy a cheap
rifle and a lot OF cartridges. No one has
even seen when these women go.
Many Yaqui prisoners and wound
ed soldiers are brought to Guaymas. Ere
quently there is a woman disguised as a
man among the dead and wounded
brought into the town.
The Yaquis live in the northeastern part
of the State of Sonora, in the republic OF
Mexico. The Yaqui rivers runs through
their reservation. TORN is the principal
Yaqui pueblo and the present military
headquarters of the Third Zone of
Mexico. The country is isolated from
the prosperous and influential part OF
the republic of Mexico by mountains and
great areas of alkali wastes. There has
been less development in the Yaqui re-
gioh than elsewhere in Mexico, and the
Indians live as their ancestors did n cen
fury ago. They are gradually dying out
owing to the warfare that they have con-
Quoted almost ceaSelessly for years. Wher
Cortez and his army came to Mexico in
1919 there were $50 600 Yaquis. In the up.
rising against the armed forces under
Coronado, which invaded northern Mexico
and pushed on to what are now Colorado
and New Mexico during 1912, the Yaquis
lost 81 900 men I'm one year In 1912 there
remained about 1000 Yaquis, and to-da :
there are 1000.
During the Cortez invasion of the en-
pire Of Montezuma, the Yaquis were the
most ntractabe fighters, and were the
last of all the tribes to yield to the con.
quest The old Yaqui chief. Andazar
was the norceSt warrior Cortez found
in central Mexico. In the battle of Tias-
Gala the loss of Yaqui soldiers alone was
over 1900. The legends of the Yaqui tribe
are full Of cruelties practiced upon their
race, by the Spanish conquestadores In
one day at the ancient city of lsleta, a
legend has it, COO men and women were
put to death by hanging, shooting
throwing from precipices, burning and
drowning. In 1872 the Spanish authori
ties in Mexico reported to the King OF
Spain that the Yaqui population had dim
inished from l60 900 to 1900 in about N
years. The five ancient, pueblos of An.
kezas, Lagunda, Mollemli, Garlic and
Caunadjito. each containing 5000 people
were entirely wiped out In a century OF
massacres. prosecutions and wholesale
executions for triflng offenses All this
was because rich old turquoise mine had
been concealed by the Indians from their
conquerors.
The story of these cruelties visited upor
the Yaquis by the Spanish were handed
down as traditions through a long course
of generations. until the war in Mexico
in 1920 for independence from Spain. Their
the whole tribe threw its heart anC
strength into that conquest. They were
General 1turbide'S most useful soldiers
The Yaqui women camped with theil
husbands and sons on the battlefelds
and sang songs while the men went out
and fought for the freedom of their coun
try from the Spanish yoke. When the
war was over In September. 1921, ant
Mexico was free, they returned to theil
pueblos and ranches among the noun
tains and valleys, For twenty-five years
the tribe was at peace. They developed
| their fields, reopened their mines, and
for the first time since Cortez, increased
in population. The tribe is famous fol
its industries. The Yaqnis established
| the first free schools in Mexico, and they
welcomed Roman Catholic missionaries
| When the American army marched into
Mexico in 1877 the Yaquis could not nj
first be coaXed from the mountains anc
valleys of Sonora to join the Mexicans
| Finally however, on promises that ad
ditional land would he given the tribe
some 5000 Yaqui braves joined the MeXi
can forces.
| From the time Of the treaty Of Guade
loupe Iidalgo in February, 1913, unit
July, 1896, the tribe has never really beer
at peace with the republic of Mexico
Their constant grievance has been thai
| the Mexican governemnt did not keel
its promise TO give them more land. The,
have spent their earnings Of fifty year.