The Holbrook news., 1912-07-26

+ ONE drops In at the oh1ce or w
 T. Shelton, agent of the Navajo In
 dians at Shiprock, N. M., at any
 time of the day or evening the
 chances are he will find one or two blue-clad Indian policemen on hand. They represent the central detail" of the reservation police force. There are eight or ten others scat tered among the hills and mesas and this little band has driven the outlaws and whisky sellers out of a territory of 5000 square miles in extent
 The Navajo Indian police are hard riders, game fighters and above all things else, faithful to their agent, whom they regard as a sort of walking edition of Uncle Sam himself, says a writer in the Los Angeles Times. They care little about the munifcent salary of $20 month the government pays them for their services. It Is for ''Non-ton-ni-nez" (the tall captain), as they term MT. Shelton, that they face more dangers than fall to the lot of the average city policeman, to say nothing of hardships to which the com kortably housed metropolitan officer is a total stranger.
 ? There is a certain element of pride In wearing the government uniforms also and in the authority It gives the wearer among his tribesmen-to say nothing of the delights of a life in the saddle which appeal to any of these horsemen of the desert.
 It would seem impossible for less than dozen men to keep order and enforce the laws in a range of terri tory as extensive as a New England state, but the police under Agent Shel- ton have done it for eight years. Only once was it necessary to call upon the soldiers for assistance and that was in Eubduing an Indian outlaw, By-a-lil-le, who had gathered a number of SUD- porters and was bent on leading a Robin Hood existence in the most in- accessible part of the reservation. When By-a-lil-le was finally captured the Indian police were in the van and bore the brunt of the fire which the outlaw and his retainers directed at the representatives of law and order Choosing Candidates for the Police.
 In choosing candidates for the h. dian police influential men among the Indians are picked. Following the ex- ample of those who selected frontier marshals from among the %gunmen" in early days, MT. Shelton has in sev- eral instances picked as policemen h. dians who have been known as Dad" Some of the most valuable members of the force have been engaged in ugly outbreaks in the past, but the A haa frye 4r !, ,F,- choice, for the donning of the official blue has in every case served to elim- lnate the ''broncho" in the redskins disposition
 One of the most zealous members of the force today was a leader in an out break in what is known as the -Four Corners Country" where the states of | Colorado. Utah, Arizona and New Mexico meet. Some "broncho" Indians got into difficulty with a trader, who | quickly rallied a dozen or more cow boys to his support Shots were ex- changed and the cowboys were com pelled to stand at bay in the hills, | where 1t seemed probable that they | would be massacred unless they se- cured aid. The trader volunteered to | dbDSmpI IO get LuIOuSn tue eQclrcunB | lines of Indians and said he would | hoist white handkerchief on a near by hill if he got through.
 When the hankerchief fiuttered on the hill the Indians saw it and real ized what 1t meant Two of them struck the trail of the trader and start ed in hot pursuit. One of the Indians fs now a policeman. He tells today how he pursued the trader with mur- der in his heart and felt strong enough to hn all the white men in the world But the trader halted just after round ing the brow of the hill and when the Indians came upon him he had them covered with a rife and ordered them to throw up their hands.
 When looked into the barrel of that gun." said the policeman laugh hgly, T didn't feel strong any more.