The San Francisco call., 1906-11-04
By H. H. Dunn

HE last fiesta Of the Sabobs
tribesmcn is over. and will
it has passed into history
one OF the strangest, weird
est gatherings the Indians of the
Southwest have eyer known
With the going out Of tho
Yumas, the Cocopaks. the Sabobas. tho
Northern Yaquis. the Moapas. and the
remnants OF the tribes that still cling
10 their homes in the barren desert.
after a three days orgy at the foot
Of Mount San Jacinto. is ended a won
derful chapter in the story OF the Land
Of the Padres
There is a Saboba Indian reserva-
tion at the base OF this historic peak. and
there, every year since Miguel Costello
HidaIgo began his fight from the in
dependence Of Mexico, these tribesmen
have held a fiesta But never has any
OF these wild fantastic displays
-equaled the one just ended. either in
enthusiasm or in point of money ex-
pended.
At midnight the Mexican flag was
raised on the ramada on the reserva-
ton; at - o'clock was let loose a
horde of Indians. nearly a thousand in
number, some OF them armed. many
savage or stupefied with hrewater, and
the fiesta was on in all its sigor.
When ii was all over after three
days Of celebration such as the staid
little town of San Jacinto never saw
before, the native police looked re-
lieved. and the officials of the reser-
walton literally fell on one another's
shoulders and wept for pure JOY that
the thing was ended.
For three days half-dozen
white men had tried to rule
almost thousand Indians. not
including q few hundred Mexicans
who had come over from the settle
meEts and tried TO get into the game
with the Indians Added to the mescal
and aguadiente which these natives
had drunk they were sleepless from
many days and nights of fasting to
prepare them for the time of their
lives.
Thankfully the officers and their ma
tive assistants remembered that the
Government had prohibited these Gel
ebrations. and that there would never
be another As TO a potlatch Of north
ern k1ootchmen- these southwestern
tribesmen brought all their worldly
goods. even their horses with them.
but il was not for the purpose Of
display or to give the animals away
that these were brought 1t was to
supply fuel for the gambling games
which were going on in the shades of
every wall. beneath every castor-bean
tree.
Gathered at Saboba were the rem
resentatives -of the leading Southern
California tribes. There were the Ca
huilas, the CocOpahs the Yumas. the
Sabobas, the Northern Yaquis. not to
mention scattering Moapas, Shoshones
(e-om the Nevada reservation. and
otser tribesmen who looked as if they
might have stepped out of Zuni or
Acomas
It was a bizarre throng that shouted
Viva SabOba" on that first night.
For while the crowd was well be-
haved and all courtesies were extended
20 the whites who chanced to enter
the -ramada. but that was before the
whisky caches were disclosed to the
thirsty hundreds. Whence came the
firewater no one seems to know, but
get IL they did, and it made OF the
pleasure-Soving, simple children of the
-oiI band Of raving. bowling ma
MACS, crszier than ever were Saharan
Gervishes.
Each year the Sabobas elect a chief.
This year their leader is Teofla Pa.
He has an able second in his wife. who.
were she a man, could rule the tribe as
well as he. Both sat in state at one
end OF the rarnada for the greater part
of the first days feasting, but the chief
had the first call on the whisky. and
old John Barleycorn soon laid the noble
red man out in the shade Of a huge
castor bean tree, along with a score or
two OF his subjects. His wife, possibly
bit less bibulous than her rpyal
spouse lasted a litds s3Eger. but at