The Coconino sun., 1922-05-19

vaipi country. Middleton, the stage driver, was SO badly wounded that he was left for dead by the Indians, but he finally recovered and is still living in Globe, Arizona.
 It may seem strange that handcuf- fed Indians could thus disarm and ] slay the sheriff until it is explained that the Indians were handcuffed in the usual manner and were skilled in firing a carbine from horseback with one hand, common practice with them in their warfare.
 In the sos, Wm. Roden was prom inent cattleman of northern Arizona, ranging his cattle in the Mogollon mountains on the head of Canyon Diablo. During the autumn and win ter Roden's stock strayed far down the canyon out on the plains of the Little Colorado river to the border of the Navajo Indian reservation.
 Now Indians are notoriously fond of fresh beef and in those days these Navajos were notoriously indiffer- ent as to the brand of the beef they consumed. Roden's cowboys missed cattle 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 band of twenty Navajos under Bo-Ettin, a sub-chief, left the reservation travel ling south to the wooded crests of the Mogollons on a deer hunt. While crossing Roden's cattle range the red men overlook one of his cowboys nam ed Montgomery who was riding a horse that the Indians immediately claimed and surrounding the cowboy they demanded the horse.
 The cowboy demurred but was per suaded to dismount by Bo-Ettin polk ing him out of the saddle with rifle. However the red men offered the cowboy no further violence and al- lowed 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 a manner. Montgomery was obliged, however, to make the best of bad situation and with his saddle on his back he trudg- ed five miles to the ranch house where he fA1nd Roden. The two men decided to seek help at Flagstaff, the county seat, 30 miles distant, and re- turn, take up the trail of the Indian party, procure the arrest of their leader, and recover the horse.
 Dan Hogan then was sheriff of Co., conino county. By noon the next day, accompanied by the two cowmen and Walter w. 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 40 miles from 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.
 1t was late afternoon when this posse sighted the smoke of the In- dians' camp rising from the midst of thick cedar forest. The red men were feasting on roast venison. On three sides the posse advanced to the Indians camp and with drawn wea- pons ordered the red men to surren- der.
 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 Roden and Sheriff Hogan were se- verely wounded. The wounded men were able to ride however, and with the assistance 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 his trial with it's pictures que characters, Indian and white, would of itself made a story of in- terest. But suffice it to say that race hatreds, frontier passions and con- flicting testimony, all played a part and no one was ever punished
 And there was Geo. Ruffner, sher- if of Yavapai, who apprehended Parker, bandit who had single-hand- ed had held up a Santa Fe express