Cavalier County farmers press. (Langdon, N.D.) 1920-1921, 1921-02-17

uceH turned 10 the fertile fields sweep
Clean for the pillow by the scythe of the
machete and the machine gun. Ever
since white men came to the new world
there has been trouble with the Yaqui,
that branch Of the great Ataplascan
migration which halted-both actually
in point Of movement, and in point of
progress in civilization-in the noun
tains of western Mexico more than ten
centuries ago. Discussion of the rights
and wrongs Of the quarrel is beside the
question, now that peace has been
made, but the first historical mention
of the Yaqui is in the Sixteenth cen
tury, when he first band of Conquis-
tadores came into what is now Sonora.
After continuous small wars, the first
treaty was made when Don Francisco
4barra brought my people, nominally,
under the Spanish crown.
One hundred and thirty years
passed, a long period of broken agree
ments, and in 1740 another treaty of
peace was signed, and a battalion Of
4aqui soldiers, incorporated, just the
same as now, in the governmental
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royal rulers. This peace, however, did
not last long, for the Yaqui demanded
absolute control of their tribal lands
IN the Yaqui river valley and, failing
to get this, again took the war path.
In l16o there was an outbreak which
exceeded any preceding it, and the war
lasted three years, when both sides be-
| lnT pShCnStn1 and tho foronc of tho
crown far from their base, peace was
concluded, which lasted until 1881.
During this period of quiet, towns
sprang up in the Yaqui river valley, and
plantations blossomed all over the
lower part of Sonora. Gradually, the
1aqui saw their lands slipping away
from them, and once more they began
war, without warning. Within the next
year they destroyed more than a score
of towns and villages, virtually all of
which, except Altar n Alamos, are
still in ruins, the white people having
feared to rebuild them during all the
14O years which nave succeeded since
that time.
The Twenty-Six Years War.
up to 1882 warfare was intermit-
tent, but constant, not a year going by
without it's foray by the Yaqui, or an
expedition against them by federal
forces by the many governments which
alternately ruled in Mexico. The fight
against the Spanish governors was
transferred, intellectually, and with
theu unanimous consent of the tribe, to
their successors of the Mexican gov
eminent. when the nation won its indie
pendence from Spain, and continued
until the powerful Gen. Jose Urea
patched up another peace treaty, which
held until the French invasion. Inter-
nal quarrels kept so many troops in the
field that no further attempt was made
to take lands from the YaQui, and they
remained quietly in the Yaqui river
valley, mere watchers of the conflict
for state control on the plains and in
the valleys below.
I'm 1860, however, the Yaqui again
went on the war path, and stayed there
until after Mexico had disposed Of
Maximilian and the Napoleonic dream
OF new world empire, and a governor
appointed by Benito Juarez had taken
his seat in Arizpe, then capital Of Son
ora. Gen. Ambrosio Pesquiera, who
had almost as many 'ups-and-downs' as
Francisco Villa, being one day dictator
and the next day revolutionist, OBJ
tanned a treaty with the Yaqui, but the
coming of Francisco Serna to super
sede Pesquiera ended that period of
peace, and small combats continued
until 1884, when the best-remembered
OF all the Iaqui outbreaks took place,
to continue. to all practical intents and
purposes, until May, 1920.
Through this period, however. two
men had been rising slowly to consider.
able strength in western Mexico-Al-
varo Obregon in Sinaloa, and Plutarcs,
Elias-Calles in Sonora. The former
made personal friends of the Yauui
chiefs, and when he became military
governor Of Sonora let them alone.
merely repulsing their raids, sometimes
SWooplng down on them just as they
were preparing to start a raid. but
never molesting them while they re-
manned quiet on their WI lands. They
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him and, finally, to admire him, as a
man who, as you Americans say, al
ways beat them to it,
Comes General Obregon.
Gen. Elias-Calles succeeded general
Obregon as governor of Sonora in 1917,
but, largely because the Yaqui did no
know him personally. he was unable to
arrange a peace, though the forays be-
came much less destructive and fur
Their apart. Meanwhile General Obre-
gon, who was even then preparing for
his w revolutionary movement. in
corporated a regiment of Yaqui SOL
diers into his army, and invited me to
represent the Yaqui on his staff. After
three conferences With my father, Chief
Mort, in which obregon came alone
n unattended to my fathers head
t rrrn r. w.