Arizona sentinel and Yuma weekly examiner., 1912-07-04

admission of the state to the Union was a memorial presented to the pres ident, and to congress in the latter part of April, asking that the vast acreage now held by the Navajos be opened to white settlement.
 "This is the last chapter in that history of the conquest by which the Caucasian has all but obliterated the Indian from the continent which was once his. It is a history which no conscientious American is happy to read, for it contains, in it's final anal. ysis, much that is not creditable to our humanitarian spirit.
 Tt will require the approval of the president and of congress to consum- mate this final seizure of the red mans last primitive habitat, and, as that approval has not yet been grant ed, and is only being sought, short inquiry into the condition of the Nav ajos and their home is interesting now.
 "The Navajos are the only tribe of Indians living today without a subsidy from the government. They are the only Indians who do not receive ra- tions from the public stores. They are the only Indians who still maintain
 
 their primitive tribal conditions, both of economic life and of government. They are the only Indians who have developed commercially their own andicrafts-blanket and basket weav- ing-without aid from the white man. Moreover, they are law-abiding and have given us no trouble for over forty years. They are living down there in the southwest, free, happy, prosper ous, self-supporting, and physically and morally clean Tuberculosis, which has attacked every other tribe of Indians, once it has come in close contact with the white man, has pass ed them by. Sexual diseases, which have ravaged every other tribe once it has been corralled and placed under the restrictions of government super vision, are unknown among them. They are an aristocratic people, proud in their aloofness both from the whites and from other Indians. They do not intermarry with other tribes, and, of the forty-six clans, forty-four punish marital infidelity with death"
 The fact that the Navajo has been able to take such good care of himself up to this time is pretty good indi- cation that he will continue to look after his interests in such a manner in the future as will constitute a req sonable guaranty that he is not going to suffer materially from the encroach- ments of his paleface brother While thousands of Indians have been de spoiled of their lands in the common history of our country, the policy of the government after witnessing so many of such incidents appears to be to protect the Indians just as nearly as possible in the enjoyment of all present rights and privileges. Doubt ces at work which would despoil the Navajos of the fairest and best of their | but the fact that they are Self-sustaining, constitute no tax upon the government and have sus- tained themselves in this manner for forty years, is a pretty good indication that no interference will be tolerated | with them now.
 A people who are so industrious, so mbued with all the requisites of good and who have lived who'll y within the income from their own and frugality, constitute citizenship in the Southwest, md healthy Southwestern public sen- .iment can be depended upon to show ts approval of their conduct by eX- ending to them just recognition anL ull protection of all rights they now enjoy.
 The Navajos are an exclusive peo- )le-asking nothing more than to be eft alone in the working out of their 'wn destiny, and it would be the very leight of injustice for them to be sub- ected to any interference from ad 'erse interests when they are only skiing to be let severly alone