The Coconino sun., 1926-08-13

sand reaches of the Rio Grande.
Without the aid of the Navajo
scouts the campaign against Geroni-
mo might have cost ten times what
it did in dollars, and the death of all
the first settlers in the southwest.
The Navajos, through their knowl
edge of the terrain; their ability to
interpret the signals of retreat and
advance of the Apaches left by faint
trace of mocassin on desert sands and
broken twigs, brought the pale sol
diers up to an equality with the fierce
warriors under Geronimo.
Even the brunt of battle was borne
by the Navajo scouts at times, for it
is said that at least on one occasion
ammunition for the newly invented
ball and cap pistols was exhausted
and the white soldiers faced massacre,
The NavajoS, with their long bows
and flint-headed arrows fought fire
with fire to the salvation of the fed
eral troops.
Old Dine Chilleo, he, who despite
his more than one hundred years,
still tramps the reservation back and
forth across its four hundred miles
memorable battle, and how he alone,
with his bow and arrows, slew nine
teen Apaches in one afternoon, and
he does not claim to have been the
mightiest slayer among his tribes
men. His was just casual part
just little gracious privilege for his
friends of the blue coats and brass
buttons.
Of the number of Navajos who took
part against Geronimo, more than one
hundred are still living These, as
fast as their claims are substantiated,
are to be paid pensions equivalent to
that paid white soldiers of the same
period Back pay for the forty years
since, the wars viii also be. granted
! the red men. Even the surviving
squaws will be entitled to draw upon
the pension fund.
Already there has been distributed,
through F. S. Stacher, Indian agent of
Crown Point, New Mexico, more than
$4,000 in pension rewards to the old
scouts, most of whom dwell in their
hogans on the western end of the res
ervation. Another $4,000 will be
distributed during the present sum-
mer when few details are ironed
out in the wrinkled records.
Mr.. Stacher, who is also one Of the
directors of the Inter-Tribal Ceremo-
NAL association, in charge of Indian
arts and crafts exhibits, has worked
necessarily upon the records for sev-.
eral years.
His task has been an exceedingly
difficult one.
When the Indians were taken into
the army in the regular way in 1886,
their signatures were principally fin
ger prints. Descriptions were maize OF
the Indian as he appeared then. Of
tentime names were arbitrarily as
signed b. the enlisting Officer
names which meant nothing to the
scouts and which were Immediately
| forgotten. Hosteen e'gay became
Jim Fink or Bill Bailey, at the whim
of the officer who much preferred
names easy to spell.
Discharge papers held no slgnlfl-
cance for the Indian Of forty years
ago. They were not SO durable but
| they soon were out or were lost or
thrown away. The descriptions even
! on those found, after four decades,
rarely fit the man they once described.
| One application was almost thrown
out because the scout, instead of be-
| ing five feet six, as stated in the rec
ords, had grown couple of inches
! late in life and lately measured five
| feet eight.
However the tangle is being untan-
gled. The scouts are coming into
their riches, however not in all cases
with humility and shrinking graft
tude.
One old chap, on receipt of his first
| twenty dollars, insisted that he be al
lowed to purchase the whole Of the
thirty-six thousand square mile reser-