Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-01-31

and craftsmen superior to the average Sonoran
of the haciendas and villages who will not work while
he has peso in his pocket and while mescal can be
had at the cantna, and who, when he enters the
army, is generally sent there from jail.
AS for the Yaqui fighter, he has proved him
self better than the Apache, while
sorting few, if any, of the Apaches bloodthirsty
tricks of warfare The Yaqu army has been regularly
organized up the last year. has been well drilled
in the of the rife has had its generals and colonies
and captains and has given such good account of
itself that has kept three thousand Mexican troops
under General Torres busy all the while in warfare
that has not been that of savages-has, in fact,
been fully as humane as that of its foernen
1t is not necessary to go back any further than
1878 to get good idea of what the Yaquis have been
doing in trying to hold their own against the people
of Spanish descent in Mexico. In that year. because
of trespass upon their lands and because the Next
cans had taken large numbers of them to work upon
their ranches in practical slavery these tremendously
tenacious fighters resumed hostilites after short
period Of peace. General Cajemi their Governor,
took command and for seven years held the passes
and strOngholds against five thousand troops under
General Pesquiera.
Although the Yaquis gave good account of them
selves, they lost many and General Caiemi was
captured and shot. Still the defensive war was con
tnued, and when at last the Mexicans drove them
there came a period during which only desultory
raids upon the haciendas made During that
period the Yaqui women and boys and some of the
non-combatant men of the tribe went out to earn
money in the mines, ranches and fisheries to buy
arms and ammunition to carry on the fight
A number of American miners who had been un
able peaceaby to work their mines brought about the
peace of Ortiz in May, 1897. The government then
began to take Yaqu boys from the reservations and
send them to Vera Cruz the other side of the con-
tinent, to make soldiers of them. These boys were
as good if not better sharpshooters than the Boer
youth, and the Yaquis that in thus deprivng
them Of what would be great source of reliance in
future battle they would eventually have to give up
all hope of holding their own So that the peace
of Ortiz only lasted few months before there was
another uprising and more fighting, chiefly of que
rilla nature, which continued for several years.
Meantime every cent that the non-combatants of
the tribe could and was handed over to the
chiefs, who bought with this money enough Mauser
rifles and mountain howtzers equip very decentIt
an army of five thousand men, under General Teta-
vate who, in April 1884, took the field after having
made this statement
1--WE Yaquis peaceful and industrious people
When the Mexicans want workers for their mines or
factories they come to us. We do not want war
We have never wanted it, but want our rights
We made treaty of peace with the Mexican govern
ment, hereditary foe, in May, 1897 after long
series of wars the last of which more than ten
in duration. We intended to keep faith with the
government of Mexico, but it has pursued course
of cruel encroachment and menace. We are now
ready to fight again. and all the battles of the past
will be nothing compared with the bloodshed that
will follow entry into the field
General Tetaviate began operations in the lower
valley of the Rio Yaqui, where his drove out the
white settlers upon Yaqui lands. They cut the tele-
graph wires and destroyed other means of
municaton, and it time before the hastily
summoned Fifth cavalry and Eleventh and Twelfth
infantry companies could be marched against them
Then followed series of battles which generally
concluded unsatisfactory for the Mexicans though