The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-05-08
THE UCARILLA BOYS

T9HFRE is one art which has been preserved by
boys and for boys-the real North American
3 boys-and that is the art of shooting with the
arrow and bow with accuracy which would
put to shame the sharpshooters who use the most
modern guns and revovers.
In part of the United States is this art seen in
such perfection in the Jicarilla Agency Of the
Apache Nation, down in New Mexico, just south of
the line which divides that State from Colorado.
AT Dulce, New Mexico, where there is government
agency, the Indians from the reservation come every
Saturday for their raons of beef -four other things
which Uncle Sam furnishes to them.
Trailing across the plains they from the hills,
mother walking alongside At each side Of the pony
are strapped two branches of the osier-ong enough
to trail upon the ground-and between these branches
hammock.
In this hammock the youngsters ride-dragged along
behind the Indian who with nodding plumes, rides
into the agency TO receive the rations for his family
for the week month
These youngsters ones who have received from
their fathers the instruction which has made them the
most remarkable marksmen
When they arrive in camp there are usually few
people there to receive them tor the railroad
into the reservation and the Apache Indians have come
closer to the civilization which they have fought
long. These people who come to See the Indians Of
the reservation form themselves into of reception
committee and On STANDARDIZATION days-the young
sters have come to believe that they win whatever
they like from the folk who stop off to see them.
and bow.
The visitor is asked to split arrow put coin in
arrow IN the ground, pace on twenty
or thirty PAGES, and place the small marksman in posi-
ton.
Then he shoots with his arrow and bow, trying to
drop the coin from the slit stick If he succeeds in
doing this, the coin is his
Westward the Course Of the Indian Empire has taken
its way, and with it have vanished, for the most part
those arts which made the North American Indian an
artisan Of the first class; but there still the
Apache Nation the of shooting with the bow and
arrow with an accuracy which seems impossible to
who has not seen it.
In the hills Of Northern New Mexico the Apaches
still do their hunting of wild game with these primitive
implements and though, from time to time, the older
members OF the tribe have accumulated firearms, they
still stick to the and the bow of hickory-the
arrow teathered with the crows wing and tipped with
| steel flint.
Art is hardly the name to apply this sort of thing
1t IS rather an exact science for the Apache Indian
boy of FIVE years will with his eye and by a
measured tread the distance between himself and
his mark and then gauge most accurately his shot with
1 his seemingly crude implements.
If he fails to the coin by shooting if from ifs
place in the split stick then he goes home-not in tears
but with grim determination practice with his bow
and arrow till he shoot every budding blossom from
tree that fall under his eye as he roams bare
! footed through the mesas of Northern New Mexico
Possibly he may be untamed savage-but he de-
desires fine art-one of absolute accuracy-and the
boys of the Apache Nation do not rest until that art
IS theirs.