The daily Alaskan., 1916-08-01
OF(MEXICO
An Indian Tribe Notorious For Its
 Savage Practices.
EVER DEFIANT AND iWARLIKE.

Never Thoroughly Conquered, They
 Have Been Fanatieally Fighting Your
 Centuries For the Land They Held
 Before Columbus Was Born.
 The story of the Yaquis of Mexico Is one of the most remarkable narratives in history. It has never been told in English except In more or less frag- mentary fashion, and the English speaking world has missed thereby a romance worth reading.
 | The tale Is literally plotted with 1 blood and stained with incidents of savage torture and treachery. for the Yaquis are a savage people, but run. ming through 1t from beginning to end are fanatic love of country, an indOm- itable courage and hardihOod that have never been eXcelled.
 In certain parts of Mexico the name of YaQui has acquired terrOrs almost legendary among the ignorant classes. | It has become a term with which to | frighten children. Even on the Ameri- | can side of the border the YAqui often gets credit for being more terrible person than he really is. In point of fact the Yaquis are the Apaches of Mexico, with rather more thun the Apaches' ability for organization and stubborn resistance.
 Aided by the fact that the govern ment opposed to them has always been ] i-n- h0f np hn United States and by the inaccessible nature of the country that they love so devotedly, they have the distinction of 1 being the only Indian tribe that has never been thoroughly and completely conquered by the whites. There have always been defiant Yaqui outlaws in ! the hills.
 The story of the Yaquis Is the story ! of their wars. Almost Il century before | the landing of the Pilgrims in New England an army of Spaniards with | their Indian allies moved northward from Mexico City, cOnquering every thing in their path When they reached the bank of the Yaqui river they were met by large band of Indians whose | leader drew a line in the soft earth 1 That line be forbade the Spaniards to cross. The white men opened fire with their cannon, but after a brief en gagement the Yaquis routed them The old Spanish chrOnicler states that | he had fought with most of the MeXi can Indian tribes, but. he says, ''l have never seen Indians fight like these"
 That was almost 400 years ago, and since then the Yaquis have fought al | most without cessation. The Mexicans estimate that there have been almost | 300 years of actual fighting between Mexicans and Yaquis.
 1 Of late years the Mexican govern ment had been adopting the only policy ! against the tribe which gave promise | of eventual success in quellng their fighting spirit. This was the plan of deportation, by which the Indians were sent from Sonora to far away Iucatan as laborers on the plantations This Is said to be the only fate that trightens the Yaquis.
 
 distance for their courage, their hardi hood and their love of country, just as | 1t is easy to paint them as impossible l demons for their cruelty and treachery They have undoubtedly practi' ed say, | age tortures on their captives in the past, just as they have undoubtedly broken treaties with the Mexican gov | erument, but 1t is just us true that they are guided by savage code Of ethics and are lighting for land that in l the last analysis belongs to them, for | they held 1t before Columbus was born
 In flesh and blood the Yaqui Is not particularly romantic hgure. He is the common labUrer Uf Sonora, the peOn. | the herIer Uf cattle and the tlller of the soil In the Mexican towns of the district many of the servants are ! Yuquis. One of the chief difficulties in subduing them has been the highly de. veloped clan spirit that prevails among | them
 The outlaw from the hills, hard | pressed. slips his rifle into a mesquite | bush and enters some peaceful village of his people, where everybody will swear that he has lived there for years
 The Yaqui is d medium sized individ ual as a rule. rather stockily built. with a face broader and browner than that of the North American Indian whom the tourist sees in the west and who adOrns our buffalo nickelS. His wlry endurance Is truly remarkable Four centuries of almost continual warfare. lnterspersed with the hardest of hard work on the ranches, have made him tough as leather He will travel for days at high speed through desert and mountain with little Or no food: he will work all day in the fields under sun glare that reaches 150 degrees heat in 1 the direct rays In fact. one of the chief problems in connection with the deportation scheme for handling the YaQui is that of filling his place as a laborer in SonOra.-CleyeIand Plain | Dealer.