Durango semi-weekly herald., 1905-01-26

are very close to the President II is
hoped that their request will be
granted"
The above story is a little mixed
According 10 Mr. Schneider. LaCombe
Merrick and Mitchell were prospect
ing In the Carrizo mountains. way
back before there was any sucn
place as Durango. They made a find
and LaCombe came out with some
| samples Of gold ore. which he took to
Lake City to have assayed, there be
ing no assay office here then. After
having the assays made ne started TO
return, and at Animas City he got
quantity of supplies, which he loaded
on pack animals. and started back to
| the reservation to rejoin his partners
Arriving at Johnny Ponds ranch on
the La Plata river, he learned that his
partners had been killed by the In
dians and had been found by Mormon
settlers from Bluff City, Utah. Mitchell
dead under a cliff, where he had made
| stand and put up hard fight Mer-
| rick, the elder of the two. was found
quite a distance away. his body be
| ing riddled with bullets He had been
killed while trying to make his es-
cape.
| The point where they were found
was near the -four corners" Mr.
Schneider has spent considerable
time placer mining and prospecting
on the San Juan below Blum City,
mountains on both sides of the river,
looking for gold. He made two or
three short trips on the reservation.
but found it too hazardous to do any
good. He found out firm these trips
that there was gold in that territory,
however. He says colors could be
found in any of the gulches and ra-
vines by panning.
He talked through an Interpreter,
with some of the big men" of the
Navajo tribe who inhabit that region
and found them very strongly oppos-
ed to allowing any white men in their
country. They reason that if white
men were allowed to go in their ter
ritory would soon be taken from
them. This as matter of history has
been handed down to toe red men
and they have seen civilization en-
encroach upon their lands until thsy
have almost no land any more and
they realize that If gold should be
found in paying quantities their res
ervation would soon be taken from
them. for nothing brings so great "A
pressure to bear in the opening of res
ervations as the discovery of gold.
Gold to them. as 1t exists in the mines
is nothing, for they cannot mine 1t,
and cannot separate the gold from the
rock if they could mine it. The hills
and mountains furnished feed for
their ponies sheep and goats and har.
Dor scanty wild game To the fast
diminishing red men this is every
thing. They are not miners and all
they want is to be allowed to live in
peace and have a place for them.
selves and little fiocks and herds they
can call their own. free from distur.
bance by the white man.
: And to this day it is not safe for a
small party OF whites to enter that
part of the Navajo reservation which
is lorded over by Black Horse. the
renegade. Many prospector who
has thought to slip in and hunt for
gold undetected, has never been heard
of again by his friends, and the mys-
, terry of his death is contained in "A pile
OF bleached bones, which are not in.
frequently run across by some ven.
tursome spirit Near Halls Ferry on
the Colorado, can be seen to this day
the remnants of a number of wagons
that have been run over the cliff ami
tnmbied down near the river. perhaps
twenty-five or thirty years ago. and
what became OF their occupants can
only be surmised.