Evening star., 1922-07-09
THE FIGHTING SIOUX

Institution. These duties afforded me
abundant opportunity to study mu-
scum biological material, which was
fully taken advantage of for a year
or SO. including my reading about our
Indians. Later, was ordered to New
Mexico. and was. for nearly seven
years, stationed or confined to old
Fort Wingate. an antiquated mill
tary post. situated in the extreme
northwest angle of New Mexico.
I'm that country / saw not a little
of the Navajoes and the Apaches-
more of the former than of the lat
ter. They are Of an entirely different
stock as compared with the Sioux of
the northwest. and had not been at
war with the whites for 4 long time
that is. the Navajoes had not.
Mariana was their chief, and We were
excellent friends for several years.
/ rarely met the Apaches, and only
those that visited the post from time
to time.
With the Navajoes it was different.
for. as stated. there was a camp OF
them close to the post. with another
big camp some twenty miles away,
whore their chief. Mariana, was in
authority. ] saw them daily for
seven years and often photographed
them. their hosans, their blanket
weavers. silversmiths. warriors and
others. Ny first lessons in photog-
raphy were given me there and by
that rera ~ hl> rho ctAr R>pfs sr,ip
Wittick. long since passed away.
wittick made hundreds OF superb
negatives OF the Navajoes. but. after
selling q few prints. he would break
them up. Many Of my own photo
graphs of the Indians. with = few
purchased from him. have been pub
lished. some by the United States Ma
tional Museum.
4
T HAD my adventures with the Nava.
joes; prevented one very serious
outbreak against the whites, and In
big snowstorm on their reservation
made an attempt to collect more
than 100 skulls in q burial cave"
but was driven of by their scouts,
who had got wind Of the exploit
from q squaw at Fort Defiance.
Speaking of getting specimens OF
their skulls, one Of my attempts came
near having q fatal ending. 1t was
in the winter and the ground was
frozen pretty hard. They had built
= substantial hogan just back Of my
quarters on q hill of some elevation.
One night they had q carouse there,
and were drinking gin. A young.
buck asked "old washae.'' Navajo
laundress. who had washed many a
shirt for me. to pass him the bottle.
Of gin. Through an oversight. she
picked UP a bottle OF kerosene in
stead. He took a 'swig" of this and
imme diately upon discovering his
mistake drew his revolver and shot
her dead.
Following the tribal custom, she
was buried there and the hogan
pulled down over the grave. The
whole thing had been carelessly done.
Tho logs and debris had been pulled
about and the wolves and coyotes
Ichewed on the half-exposed body Of
the sQuaw. In December her skull
was pretty well uncovered. and de-
termined to get is as . souvenir.
One morning my two youngsters. then
but little boys. Bob and Percy. went
with me UP there with . gunnyssck
and . big knife for . trowel. The
boys were standing by the semi-ex-
posed skeleton and was trying to
work the skull out OF the partly
frosen ground when the crack OF q
Winchester rang out In the clear.
cold air. The ball passed between
the two boys and just over my back,
and 1t came from the Navajo camp.
situated on the other side Of the post.
some few hundred yards away. It
plainly said-what I well knew to be
the eass--that was violating one Of
the most sacred rules Of the Nava.
joea pushed the two youngsters
over whom Q second report followed.
the ball striking q log not more than
three or four inches from the head
Of my oldest boy. I ordered them 70
squirm over the ground to the far
thest side of the hill at once. Two
or three more shots came, but WEI
were quickly under cover and nj
wounds The skull OF ''washee" noa1
adorns the top Of An old secretary IN
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