Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1916-08-18
YAQUIS WORSHIP
AMERICAN MUTE
Nine Times They Try to Kill Har-
ness Maker of Cananea, but
Bullets Miss Him.
THOUGHT man WAS Accused
unwittingIy He Acquires Peculiar In
fIuence Over Indians by Virtue Of
Unconcern When They. At
tempt to Kill Him.

Ell PasO, Tex.-Refugees arriving
from Sonora report that d. o. Watson
is dead. He died, they say, in the
customary manner for human beings
to die-in bed with his boots off. Such
n death was not what the fates had
seemed to decree.
Watson was harness maker living
in Cananea, and was known through
out the Sonora district for his peculiar
influence over the Yaqui Indians. I'm
Willingly he had acquired this power
by virtue of his attitude Of total I'M
concern on an occasion when the In
dams sought to kill him. Since then,
and until his death, they regarded him
as deity.
The harness maker was deaf and
dumb. His wife and two of his three
children were similarly afflicted. The
third child, however, was born nor
NAL.
1t was this popularity that aroused
the enmity of the Yaquis several years
ago. They saw Watson cOnversing on
his fingers with his wife. They had
never heard him utter a word. Such
symptoms, according to the Indians
creed. were unfailing proof that the
evil spirit lived within the man. They
believed the harness maker accursed
and considered it their duty, as their
key to the happy hunting grounds. to
exterminate him.
Ambushed Nine Times.
On nine occasions Watson was am
buscaded by the would-be assassins.
but escaped the bullets that were sent
to take his life. These attempts, how
ever, were but preIiminaries. 1t was
during the closing hours of the first
battle of Cananea, fought March %,
"a and %, 1913, that the grand and
final attempt was made, and the In
dams failing in this, became the re-
ligious slaves Of the harness maker.
The night before the battle, go Viii
listas, under command Of Capt. AlvarO
Dieguez, visited Cananea and, break
ing into the little Watson home, de-
Illduutu kOlu. WdtoOhs OCih6 uCdA anu
dumb, could not understand the SOL
diers. Angered at what they deemed
his refusal to comply with their de-
mand.. Captain Dieguez stood the I'M
happy man and his wife against the
wall of their bedroom. A firing squad
had already formed opposite them,
when the cry of the third child at
tracted the officers attention.
Seized with a sudden inspiration,
Dieguez went over to the crib and
lifted the infant out. Then he snatched
I'D the diminutive mattress. Gold
rained onto the floor. The crib was
Watson's hiding place for his horde
The baby's cries had saved its parents
lives, for the MeMcans, having got
what they sought, left the couple un-
harmed.
Hardly had the Villistas galloped
ont of the town before the advance de-
tachment of the federal troops gal
Hoped in from the south. An hour
later q hatless peon raced through
the streets crying out that large force
of Observation-Disclosures Carranza
troops-were approaching.
1t was on the third day of the fight
ing when victory was assured for the
Observation-Disclosures, that the Yaquis re
membered the "evil spirit" and SCI
about a united effort to crush 1t, In
the person of the harness maker. A
small band of Indians. score. per
haps, happened to approach the Wat
son home and deployed cautiously tC
the rear. There they saw the harness
maker seated calmly on fence whit
Ting a stick with jack-knife. He
had heard nothing of the battle going
on around him, and was totally uncon
scious that anything was wrong.
Hate Turns to Worship
1t appeared to be 'easy picking" fOl
the Indians. They leveled their guns
and took pot shots.
The combined reports of their weap
ons rOared like cannon, and a score OF
bullets whizzed past Watson's head
MiraculOusly he escaped being hit, an(