Evening star., 1926-09-24
YAQU|S MENACE
j. s. SETTLEMENTS
Fighting Indians "Visit''
American Holdings in Mex
leo, Presaging Hostility.

The Yaqui Indians of southern
Sonora. Mexico, again on the war
path, and the fertile country in which
they have torn up railway tracks in
the last few days are described in
the following communication to the
National Geographic Society from
Herbert Corey, who recently visited
the region:
"Guaymas is on the edge Of the
Yaqui country" writes Mr.. Corey
I'VE had been conscious of the
Yaqui all the way south, Of course,
for in Sonora he forms the back
ground to every conversation; but
It was here that he stepped into the
foreground.
When things go wrong in-Yaqui-
land he is apt to beleaguer Guaymas.
1t is not so very long ago that no
one dared walk out Of the dangerous
burned railroad bridges and held up
railroad trains and murdered pas
sengers.
One-Sixth Original Strength.
AT one time the Yaquis may have
numbered 10000 souls, now there
may be 5000 in all. Their home was
in the fertile valleys of the Yaqui
and Mayo Rivers, with the hills be-
as tireless on the trail as the
Apaches or the Navajos, and. de-
spite 800 years of contact with
more or less diluted civilization. are
today about what they were when the
first Spaniard came to Sonora.
They live in shacks made of brush
prefer the meat of burros to beef, and
preserve jealouSly the purity of the
Yaqui blood. They are religious after
t6A vtf
Of the Catholic Church with those OF
their own barbaric faith.
Most Americans whO~ know the
YaQui say that if he had been let
alone he would have let the white
man alone. But he owned fertile
valleys and minerich mountains. The
history of our own West teens with
analogous cases. The miners and the
farmers established themselves in his
territory, and the Yaqui declared war.
The technical honors seem to have
gone to the Yaqui.
1T is true that at one time mines
were opened everywhere in his mouns
tans and the fat river bottoms were
taken from him; but the troops sent
against him were cut up time after
time
Disappears After Battle.
peared without leaving sign The
bronco Yaqui became the tame Yaqui
overnight He traded breeCh clout
for the blue overalls of honest labor.
OF course that sort of thing could
not be endured by the Mexican gov
ernment Without discussing the
rights and wrongs, the fact remained
that the YaQui stood in the path OF
progress. President DiaZ at first tried
Il tlNnvNN
and finally resorted to Il policy of
determination.
"A Yaqui scalp had a cash value
over the counter. | have talked with
q man who sat at breakfast with ii
Mexican general to whom was report
cd the capture of 200 Yaqui braves.
Without leaving the table, he ordered
that half be shot and the other half
depOrted to Yucatan, where laborers
were needed on the sisal plantations.
One hears in Sonora that not all
the ships that sailed for Yucatan voy
aged farther than the first shark fish
ing ground.
"DiaZ had cOWed the YaQuiS if he
had not completely subjugated them.
The river valleys were given over to
the plow and the prospectors roamed
at will through the mountains.
MaderO Enlisted Their Aid.
Then Francisco Madero, practical
idealist, enlisted them in his fight
against Diaz and the Yaquis discov-
cred that they could play a part in
politics.
The Yaquis have been pursuing a
policy of more or less peaceful pene
tration into what was once their own
country.
We are coming home. Get out.
the YanuiS have said TO manV a Mex
lean whose family had lived on a
Yaqui valley ranch for generations
Usually the Mexican gets.
IF he does. the Yaquis give him or
ders upon the central government at
Mexico City for the full value of the
property, for the Yaquis. according
TO their lights, are honest and fair.
IL he does not leave-he always