Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1917-05-18
HOW "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON MADE
GOOD CITIZENS OF INDIAN CHARGES
Story Deed That viii Render Johnson immortal in the Hearts
of the Pueblo Indans-Fghts for Boy Deputy Against
Forces of Bad Government Which Ultimately
Cost Him His Official Position.
ANOTHER OF JOHNsON'S GREAT EXPLOITS

On one occasion Pablo was detailed
to assist in the raiding of saloon
near Sasakwa. Bill was no Pussyfoot
in action. Rushing through the door,
he ordered the proprietor to throw up
his hands. He failed to notice, how
ever, that a bartender was bending
down behind the bar. His presence
was suddenly brought. home to Pablo
when revolver barked and a bullet
nearly carried away one of Bills ears.
With roar like bull Pablo immedi-
ately replied with shot which broke
the bartender's wrist. Then, jumping
over the bar, he picked the man up
and flung him into the middle of the
saloon to his assistant, while, collaring
the proprietor he walked off with him
through the terrified crowd of loafers.
When Johnson took a hand in the
New Mexico situation the lot of the
Indians there was a pitiable one. For
years they had been suffering at the
hands of the crooked politicians who
ran the state AS an instance CO this:
about hundred and fifty years preyi-
ously the Pueblos of Santa Clara had
purchased from the Spanish govern
ment tract consisting of some ninety
thousand acres OF land, for which they
paid thousand dollars and 8 horse
The land was transferred TO them IN
fee simple, and used by them until
few years previously, when some land
sharks took the question of ownership
into the courts, with the result that
the Santa Clara purchase dwindled in
size from ninety thousand acres to a
narrow strip of less than nine hundred
acres along the Santa Clara river,
| known as the Shoestring Grant.
This particular affair came to the
attention of Mr.. F. E. Leupp when he
was commissioner of Indian affairs,
/ and he interested himself in the mat
ter to the extent of giving the Indians
! about thirty thousand more acres as
an executive order" Indian reserva-
ton, in lieu of what they had lost
through the manipulations in the
courts. Subsequently an attempt was
made to manipulate this new grant
by bestowing it upon other tribes,
doubtless with no disinterested pur.
pose in view. At the same time cat
tie were driven upon the Indians
lands and pastured there, without any
shade of legality.
But the worst evil with which the
Pueblo Indians had to contend was
the liquor traffic, though it's effects.
being more insidious. were less ap-
parent. The crooked politicians at
Santa Fe were in close alliance with
the Illicit dispensation of whisky
among the red men.
Johnson had plenty of deputies at
his call when, in 1910, he resolved to
clean up conditions among the Pu-
eblos. Johnson knows a man when
he sees one, even IL he is less blus-
tering but no less courageous than
the redoubtable Bill Pablo. Such a
man was young Juan Cruz Of Pablo
/ San Juan, whom Johnson saved from
legal murder at the cost OF his posi-
| ton.
! Juan Cruz was a deeply religious
young Indian, devoted to his church.
his young wife Dolorita. and their
baby Jess. He had lived all his life
upon his reservation, and had wit
messed the evils which the introduc-
ton of whisky brought in its train.
He had seen two of his comps nions