Mohave County miner and our mineral wealth., 1922-05-12

the usual manner and were skilled il firing a carbine from horseback witt one hand, a common practice witt them in their warfare.
 In the '9Os Wm. Rodin was a prom inent cattleman of northern Arizon; ranging his cattle in the Mogollor mountains on the head of Canyo1 Diablo. During the Autumn and win ter Rodin's stock strayed far dow1 the canyon out on the plains of the Little Colorado river to the border o1 the Navajo Indian reservation.
 Now Indians are notoriously fond oi fresh beef and in those days these Ma. vajos were as notoriously indifferent as to the brand of the beef they con- sumed. Rodin's cowboys missed cat tie and they retaliated by stealing and running off the Indians ponies. For several years this game of tit for tat went on. Honors were about even.
 In the autumn of 1899 a band of twenty Navajos under Bo-Ettin, a sub chief, left the reservation travelling south to the wooded crests of the Mo- gollons on a deer hunt. While cross ing Rodin's cattle range the red men overlook one of his cowboys named Montgomery who was riding horse that the Indians immediately claimed and surrounding the cowboy they de- manded the horse.
 The cowboy demurred but was per suaded to dismount by Bo-Ettin polk ing him out of the saddle with a rifle. However the red men offered the cow boy no further violence and allowed him to remove his saddle and bridle when taking the horse in tow they disappeared to the south.
 If there is anything that makes a cowboy fighting mad it is to be left afoot on the range in such manner. Montgomery was obliged however to make the best of a bad situation and with his saddle on his back he trudg- ed five miles to the ranch house where he found Rodin. The two men decided to seek help at Flagstaff, the county seat thirty miles distant, and return, take up the trail of the Indian party, procure the arrest of their lea der and recover the horse.
 Dan Hogan then was sheriff of Co., conino county. By noon the next day accompanied by the two cow1nen and a man named Durham, whom he had deputized, and all we'll mounted and armed, he was on the Indians trail. Picture these four white men in pur- suit of twenty savages, openly hostile and as well armed as they and this in wooded mountain wilderness forty miles from any assistance. The odds were five to one. But the old time sheriffs knew not fear. Always they accepted the odds which were all in the days work. It was late afternoon when this pos SC sighted the smoke of the Indians camp rising from the midst of thick cedar forest. The red men were feast ing on roast venison. On three sides the posse advanced to the Indians camp and with drawn weapons order ed the red men to surrender.
 Not to this day is it known who started the fight but when the smoke of the firing had lifted two Indians were dead and the rest had fled talk ing with them several wounded braves among whom was Bo-Ettin. Of the posse, Montgomery was killed and Ro- din and sheriff Hogan were severely wounded. The wounded men were able to ride however and with the assis- tance of Durham who was unhurt they managed to reach the county seat whence the coroner was sent to the scene of the battle.
 The long trial of the Indians con cerned which was the sequel to this episode, followed. For days several hundred red men were encamped on , the outskirts of the frontier town of Flagstaff attending court with their government agents. The dramatic scene of this trial with it's pictures que characters, Indian and white, would of itself make story of inter est. But suffice it to say that race hatreds, frontier passions and con- flicting testimony, all played part and no one was ever punished.
 And there was Geo. Ruffner, sher- if of Yavapai, who apprehended Par ker, a bandit who single handed had held up Santa Fe express near Ash Fork in 1900. Parker was Tn the Prescott jail, in wing of the court house awaiting sentence for this rob bery. But one day the bandit contriv- ed to get out of his cell into tse jail corridor where he lay in wait and when the jailcr came in with the pris- oners' dinners, the bandit overpower- ed the man, took his sixshooter and keys locked the jailer in, and star ed t.. escape by way of the courthou*e hall.
 At the door of the courthouse Par