Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1906-12-16
AN INDIAN SPARTAN RACE
story of How the Yaquis Have Fought
for Their Homes for Two
Hundred Years.

When some new Homer shall arise to
sing the gioTies of a heroic but vanishing
race ne will find ready to his pen a
worthy story in the Yaqui Indians of the
California gulf. These people have never
made treaty with the white people, they
have never bowed the knee for a moment
even under the relentless and never-ceas-
ing march of a superior race, and they
have never yielded a foot of their ancestral
hills as long as there was man to de-
fend them. They have made no plea for
the sympathy of the world, have called
upon none of the people of their own color
and race to help them defend their homes,
and they have never wantonly committed
atrocities But whenever a white man in
vades the Yaqui country with the inten-
ton to remain and occupy it, ne is just
mortally sure to find grave there. A few
white men have gone there and been well
treated, but in every such case they have
gone to trade with the Yaquis or to trans
act some business with them, and with the
avowed intention to leave again as soon
as their business was finished. In nearly
every case, too, the victim has been duly
warned by the fighting men of the tribe
what he might expect if he did not leave
l have been there and l know.
Gregorio del Amo, a Spanish gentleman,
long a resident in Old Mexico and for the
past ten years a resident of southern Cali
fornia, came to Chicago recently, on his
way for a visit to his native Madrid. He
is a physician and surgeon, natural scien-
fist with sufficient of this worlds goods at
his command to enable him to please him
self in the matter of an occupation, and for
many years he has pleased to visit among
the aborigines; in these visits he has min
istered to them as a physician and nurse.
and in the course of time he came to be
regarded by many OF them in the light Of a
superior being-able to perform wonders
in the driving out Of disease. This advan-
tageous point he has used TO bring him into
| a form Of intimacy with some OF these peo-
| pie and II was in this way that he came
to know the Yaquis so well.
Even during some of their worst out
| bursts of war against the white men, he
said, Il lived right in their camps,
ate Of their miserably frugal fare,
nursed their sick, attended to the wounded
| who were brought in from the fighting
/ line. and l must confess that sometimes
/ have given them a word of advice as 10
the white mans methods of war and his
! tremendous resources. Once 1 started to
argue with one of their head men in IA
vor Of their giving up the awfully One-sided
and devastating wars against the whites
but the old man gave utterance, in the
simple way of his people, to so many fine
thoughts on the desirability of all being
killed rather than brought under the white
! mans domination, like so many Of theiI
kindred tribes in the new world, that
had not the heart to persevere, and Il
would not have done the least bit OF good
! II had.
when let alone they are a most friendly
I and peace-loving tribe OF Indians; they
are industrious far beyond the common rur
OF Indians. and in the intervals Of wal
go about their business, cultivating thei
small fields OF wheat and corn, melons
the citrus fruits and berries; present.!
some one Of them will see a band o.
1 American or Mexican prospectors invading
their hills; then he lays down his crud,
tools and goes to alarm the rest OF tn
tribe. Presently a sort OF committee watt
upon the intruders, asks their intentions
and unless their story is satisfactory the,
are ordered away II they refuse to &,
they are again waited upon, and this tim
told that death will be the result OF thei
remaining longer. More time is given, an
then. II the invaders make no move t
clear out. one OF them Is waylaid and sho
generally in such a way that he will b
merely wounded, but rot killed This
their formal declaration OF war. The mex
move will be a dead man, and unless tn