The Coconino sun., 1922-06-16

CTlChSOll, ranger dl Iile ldiilouo " "i nut Canyon Cliff Dwellings, found what he supposed to be the skeleton of a white man, and so it was re- ported.
 The Coconino Sun, in the number dated Friday, May 26, 1922, printed a letter from Colonel George Hochderf- fer, a former resident of Flagstaff, in which he intimated that he thought the skeleton found by MT. Erickson was probably that of one Ed Roberts, whom he seems to believe to have been killed by a sheep herder near the cliff dwellings, about thirty years ago, for meddling with his pot of beans.
 So the matter rested, with the be- lief commonly prevailing that the mysterious skeleton, now resting on a table behind Mir. Erickson's office, was that of the victim of an irate Mexican shepherd.
 MT. Erickson and others had con- cluded that the skeleton was that of a white man, for the reason that there were two round holes, one larger than the other, in the skull. In the grave they had not found so much as a piece of cloth, button, or even a shoe peg to show that a white man had ever occupied it, and so the in- vestigators had concluded that the herder, needing clothes for himself, had completely disrobed his victim. Ho!
 These conclusions and deductions were perfectly reasonable, in view of the evidence that had been presented.
 Upon examining the skull of the mystery man the author was soon convinced that Ed Roberts had never worn it. The back of it was strangely high and broad, and it was almost as flat as if it had been shaped on a board. Nothing but lying on the rocks of the cliffs of Walnut Canyon could account, in the mind of the au- thor, for the fiatness of that skull. Ho!
 The holes in the skull looked very much indeed like real bullet holes, but they look much more like the round holes made with good war club. Had there been three holes, or only one, instead of two, confus- ion would have been avoided. The murderer would have simplified mat ters for us had he pecked the victim on the head with his war-club four or five times. Ho!
 Convinced that the skeleton was that of a cliff dweller, the author went deeper into the matter. It soon developed that the supposed victim of the Mexican sheep herder had been .scalped and had had both hands and both feet cut off, besides having his skull crushed in twice with a war club. Whether or not anything else was done to the gentleman we are not able to announce, but he evident ly had enough. Ho!
 It was the work of an enemy. Ho!
 No harmless sheep herder ever did such terrible execution over pot of beans. Hol
 The grave of our hero was not, as had been reported, near the trail to the cliff dwelling, but was decidedly in among those old, old homes. It was in the very heart of them, and not even on the edge of that ancient community. It was in the fastness of one of their two fortified, inaccessible, unassailable strongholds. No herd of sheep was ever in that place, where everything stands on edge. Ho!
 The mutilated remains had been laid to rest some forty or fifty feet below some cliff dwellings clustered on the side of what MT. Erickson has called the Fort. This is a fortified peninsula, a Gibraltar in this place Ho! ...
 It is not believed that he was killed here, but more probably in the fields of the level lands above the canyon It seems very likely that the. enemy surprised him while he was at work up there, and fixed him up good be- fore the much needed help could ar rive. Ho!
 They carried away his scalp, his hands and his feet as trophies a time-honored custom.
 Yes; they seem to have had their little wars in those days too. The wild nations of today have not been the only war makers. Ho!
 Until nation is willing to spend as literally in peace as in war we can scarcely hope to see the end of