The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-07-01

Frederick Ordway in the Washington ' Post.
 QUARTER of century ago old ~ Geronimo and his band of mur- derous Apaches were the scourge and terror of the southwest. Until Gen eral Miles and his troopers made it so hot for the redskins that they gave uP the conflict and sued for peace, the word Apache stood for all that was cruel and fendish in savage warfare.
 Today, down in Arizona, these same Apache Indians are welding pick and shovel and drawing daily wages from Uncle Sam Included in the number are a score or more of Geronimo's old war riors, members of the ferocious band that scalped men and women, butchered little children. and howled with savage glee while other victims slowly perished at the stake.
 The hands that were dyed with the white mans blood are now calloused with the white mans tol; tomahawk and scalping knife have been exchanged for implements of labor; war paint and feath- CTS have given way to oVeralis and jumpers and the noble red man eats out of a tin dinner pail. thankful for his pork and beans and pie.
 From a ration-fed, dependent ward of the nation or a demon on the warpath to an independent self-supporting citizen is long step forward To make the In dian an industrious and thrifty citizen has long been regarded as hopeless task, but the Arizona experiment is full of en- tn fri nj Rborgine.
 As farmer. coniining his efforts to till- Ing the soil on farm he has been pro- yided with the Indian is rarely success. Few tribal Indians will farm. The con- tnuous toll and eXacting toll. the monot- ony and isolation of farm life, are too much for poor Lo There Is too long an Interval between the planting and the Harvesting and the red man is not long on patience He is prone to leave too much to nature, and his crops go uncared for and fail.
 Because he failed as a farmer the In dian has been regarded as the white mans burden and for a time further efforts to promote his social condition were dis continued. Recently 1t has dawned upon the country that the Indian will worl-at least some of them will. The most remark able demonstration of this fact Is the one which has occurred in Arizona during the pas year. In the famous valley of the Salt river the government is erecting one of the highest dams in the world It's To- cation Is in the Tonto basin, once the famous rendezvous of Geronimo and his .Apaches. Until recently the basin was al- most inaccessible, being surrounded on all sides by perpendicular walls thousands of feet high and with only a single mar row and perlous trail leading Into 1t. Remnants of this band of once dreaded savages still live there. but their chief is exiled and the spirit of the tribe appar- ently is broken.
 It was necessary to construct a road into the basin, and for greater part of the way it must literally be hewn from the walls of the river canyon. Labor was scarce and high priced. These untoward conditions taxed the ingenuity of the gov ernment engineers. Washington accepts mo excuses. The mandate went forth in terse terms: Build a wagon road with easy grades into the basin"
 The engineer turned missionary and held a powwow with the band of Tonto Apaches, Geronimo's old scalp filters. who were camping round about him. His elo- uuence proved irresistible, and several hun dred Indians forthwith went on the gov ernment pay roll. The road was com peted-a marvellous piece of work-and the Indians were in nn small degree re- sponsible for its prompt construction.
 Dropping their picks when the road was completed. they took up the shovel and scraper, and are today working on the canals and ditches. The problem is solved. The Indian will work. What jus tice could be more poetic than that their arrows and hatchets should be turned into picks and shovels and their labor be util- ized to bring the precious water to the land which they had so orten enriched with the blood of the white man?
 The success of the experiment in Ari- fc a1r dxF ari, f,t.ft ole On the Colorado river. near Yuma, the Yumas and Cocopahs are building massive 1evees, clearing away the dense under brush along the canals, and hewing the fuel for the power plants. In northern California and southern Oregon in the Hand of burnt-out fires" the Klamaths and Modocs are getting ready to dig ditches. In Washington and Yakimas are seeking an opportunity 10 extend govern ment irrigation to their valley. In far northern Montana 1000 Blackfeet Indians