New Britain herald., 1915-07-03

and frequently victorious over the
Yaqui tribe, is Of a more peaceful in
clination and has retained by diplo-
matte means some valuable farming
land. The Mayo also entered the
revolutionary struggle. Large num-
bers of the Mayo braves joined the
Carranza ranks, and have been assist
ing materially in the Obregon vic
tories over the Villa army in central
Mexico. This left the Yaqui in undis-
puted control in Sonora. The plan.
formerly suggested, of playing the
Mayo against the Yaqui could not be
employed since the bulk Of the Mayo
fighting men had been removed. Us
\ The racial characteristics of the
Yaqui of Mexico are similar to those
of the Apache, who caused continued
warfare in the early development of
the southwestern United States. The
Yaqui is credited with direct rela-
tiOnship to the Apache. Like his
northern cousin the Yaqui has been
guilty of all manner of brutality di-
rected against his prisoners, and is
known to have employed modes Of
torture as skillful as those of the
ancient Chinese. This has caused a
fear of the Yaqui which was not due
entirely to his, military ability. The
Yaqui was the first Mexican tribe to
| become fulyl armed with rifles, and
to become skillful in their use. Other
| tribes along the west coast still en-
ploy the bow and arrow for hunting
and in some cases in fighting any
alien invaders
Skilled i'm Military Methods.
while retaining his tribal tongue
and savage customs, the Yauui be-
came skilled in military methods. He
kept his skillful manner of guerilla
warfare, but adopted to a large extent
some European methods. In the at
tacks on the Sonora-Arizona border
towns the Yaqui troops made desper-
ate assaults on the Carranza trenches,
charging the positions much in the
manner OF the European soldier. 1t
had been difficult to make the MeNi-
can troops do this.
The Yaqui in his natural stage of
military development had used small
drums on which he gave simple
marching orders. These drums took
the place Of the voice or trumpet, and
had the advantage of their peculiar
noise of making it difficult for the
enemy to locate the source of the
sound In military service with his
|
veloped a more extensive system of
drum signals, until his officers could
command large numbers of men TO
make all manner Of movements. The
Yauui unlike other Indians always
had marched in military formation
until deployed for action. Many bat
ties were won merely by the noise of
their Yaqui drums which seemed to
terrorize the enemy when the sounds
of the beats appeared to come from
all directions. In some cases a few
Yaqui drummers would crawl to the
enemy's TANKS and by beating out
some signal make it appear that the
position was being surrounded.
Numerical Strength Unknown.
No reliable information is available
as to the Yaqui's actual numerical
strength, so varying are the reports
of the Mexican military authorities
and American settlers. But it is known
that several thousand rifles, mostly of
the military model, are in the hands
of the Indians, and that large amounts
of ammunition have been obtained by
the hill tribesmen. The Yaqui's man
ner of warfare, and familiarity with
the country would make most difficult,
it is believed by the valley settlers, his
complete defeat and disarmament.
4