The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1916-03-16

w German Zeppelin are the
N poisoned arrows of the Yaqui
Indians, against whom the
Mexicans have waged relentless wal
for more than a century, says the Bos-
ton Transcript.
Yaqui bows are made of black palm
wood, which Is extraordinarily hard;
the arrows are long and sharp and so
poisoned as to cause certain death
In from three to seven days, but only
after the most horrible torture, dur
ing which the patient raves, eats and
gnaws his own flesh, beats his head
against the wall or ground and so dies.
No antidote for the poison has ever
been discovered. According to an old
Spanish record, early settlers in Next
CO tried by promises and threats to
persuade the Indians to give them
recipe for 1t, but could not prevail
until they had wounded Yaqui they
had taken, and then gave him liberty
to 60 abroad to seek his remedy. They
observed that he gathered two herbs,
which he stamped and pounded Sc
verally, drank the juice Of one, and
injected the other into his wound; but
first he opened the wound and drew
out the barbs Of the arrow, which,
inflnitesimally fine and thin, are left
in the flesh after the shaft is taken
out; for unless the wound be first
cleared thereof, the herb can have
no effect. In this manner the Indian
cured himself, but the novice has had
only varying results, as none but the
Indian knows the art of clearing the
wound. They cumber the earth"
said Lord Amherst on a certain mem
orable occasion of our own truculent
Senecas. They cumber the earth"
said his excellency, President Diaz,
when speaking of the Yaquis. So the
unwritten edict went forth that the
Yaquis should be exterminated, after
they proved refractory to all softening
influences of civilization.
Don't Like Americans.
Being unable to either civilize or ex-
terminate them after nearly a century
of endeavor, Mexico graciously sold
to Americans almost exclusively min
ing and other concessions within the
disputed territory, a fact which prob
ably accounts for the Yaquis' sudden
change Of heart" towards Americans.
Indeed, until within the past fifteen
years, q visit to the Yaquis was consid-
cred an interesting and by no means
hazardous excursion by the younger
men Of our navy while cruising or sur
veying IN the Gulf of California. The
Yaquis would always receive their Wis
itors with perfect Indian hospitality,
regale them with the best they had
and show them excellent shooting.
The only descriptions we have of
the coast villages Of the coast tribes,
situated as they are amid swamps and
lagoons which render them well-nigh
inaccessible, are due to the accounts
which the jolly sailor boys have left
OF their outings on shore. Curiously
enough also, the armistices which
have been concluded and the attempts
which have been made from time to
time to make peace between the Mex
lean government and the Yaquis have
nearly always been initiated and car
ried on by American adventures and
proSpectors across the border, the
Yaquis refusing consistently to admit
Mexicans within their villages, even
when they came suing for peace and
bringing presents.
~ The strongholds of the Yaqui valley
and the Businesses of the Sierra which
they are defending with such stubborn
valor az to command the admiration
OF the Mexican officers who have had
to fight them are full Of copper mines