Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-03-09
CONTINUED From Third Page.)


tors dig the canals Of today, those util-
lied by the ancient Indian farmers were
patiently excavated by hand. Stone
"hoes" and sharpened sticks loosened
the earth: bare hands scraped 1t into
baskets which women and children car
ried out and emptied above the borders.
This Is not pure conjecture. Stone
hoes, frequently broken ones, have been
found along the canal banks; the primi-
tive tribes of the Southwest had no
metal tools, no beasts of burden. until
after the Spaniards arrived in 1910.
So far as we know them today the
Sedentary or village Indians of our
Southwest have always been commu-
nistic. They worked together Hence
there is every reason for believing that
the prehistoric canals along the Rio
Salado were community enterprises, and
that every member of the village had q
hand in constructing what meant life
to his family and his relatives.
Ruins of Ancient StronghoIds.
l On bold promontories a short distance
to the northward, rock-walled ruins oc-
cupy well-nigh impregnable positions. I
have had no opportunity thoroughly to
examine these broken structures, but it
seems to me not unlikely they represent
defensive works to which the valley IN
dams retreated in times of great ex-
tremity.
AS white pioneers of the 1905 had
their Apaches, so the earlier Indian
farmers had their hereditary enemies.
Marauding bands may well have forced
family groups into larger communities,
as they did in better known archeologi-
cal areas of the Southwest. Continued
harasSment by these bands, coupled
with possible deepening of the river
channel below the canal levels, would
| haUn heen Qn0F0Ia for the gradual
abandonment Of the aboriginal farming
villages.
Many absurd beliefs have grown up
about these ancient folk For instance,
1t has been asserted that all the $50
miles Of canals they built were in use
at the same time; that it is possible to
estimate the prehistoric population from
the number of acres these canals would
have irrigated. From the ground, but
more clearly from the air, one sees where
a given canal has been superseded by
another.
Its heading may have washed out or
the river channel measurably deepened,
thus necessitating an extension Of the
ditch up stream. Low lying farms may
have been waterlogged and thus rem
dered unfit for cultivation, as happened
only a few years ago east Of Tempe,
until pumping plants were installed to
lower the water table. present these
thoughts with question because
neither nor any one else may know
with certainty.
Builders Of the Waterways.
Nor can we say what people built
these ancient waterways. To the Nor
mons, the builders were the Lamanites;
to others they were the Lost Tribes OF
Israel. Out in Phoenix the other day
gentleman hopefully inquired whether
did not think we had in these ancient
canals proof of the Lost Atlantis And
had to reply that, from my point of
view, the canal builders were merely
, the ancestors of some of our present
Southwestern tribes; that, sooner or
later, archaeological exploration would
solve the mystery.
/. The Yaqui Indians Of Mexico were
formerly among the most expert of
! irrigationists. Padre Kino in 1887 found
| the Pimas cultivating very considerable
fields by means of main canals and
clever system of laterals. The related
PapagoS, and the Mar1copaS, were also
farmers when first visited by whites and
they remain so today. One day, un-
doubtedly, some painstaking student of
| prehistory, with the privilege Of sticking
to a tedious and unremunerattve Job
will disclose the real answer to this
much mooted question.
Ou6t HOW We Ildy DC KIdVClu1 Jk1db q
. means has been found for mapping the
J ancient canals; perhaps even recovering
! those which have been obliterated by
modern agriculture. Sailing back and
} forth across Salt River Valley, looked
| down from the blue Douglas upon a
veritable paradise.
Sites Of Former Dwellings.
: Through the orchards, through green
= 4 IL -
: saw the leveled sites of numerous
= ancient Indian dwellings walled
! dwellings clustered about the remains
Of a larger, central structure. ] saw,
: 200, the disconnected fragments Of hand
dug canals that watered the fields asso-
. ciated with those prehistoric settlements.
) Yet how little of all this one observes
! when on the ground! In their rapid
press forward, good citizens of the pres
: ent have wiped out, literally, nearly
! every monument erected by their
predecessors of 500, perhaps 1000, years
ago. Modern civilization rises from the
; ruins of the pastl
: And what had already taken place
throughout the Salt River Valley Is now
|, being repeated along the Rio ella. Here
$4,000 acres Of desert land are being
cleared and prepared for irrigation at
the rate Of 90 acres q day.
Completion Of the Coolidge Dam made
this colossal enterprise reality; within
. very short while prosperous farmers
will harvest golden crops where ocatilla
and the giant sahuaro now flourish.
Congress has finally rewarded the
patient Pima and is returning to him,
with interest the water taken from him
: nearly half century ago.
Pimas Industrious Farmers.
Always the Pimas have been peaceful,
industrious farmers; always they have
been friends and loyal supporters of the
white man, even when the latter crowd
ed in and settled upon their tribal
lands In 1857 and for two decades
thereafter the Pimas welcomed Father
Kino whenever his work brought him
to the ella Valley: they fed him and
his followers from their abundant stores
; and pastured his mules In green
meadows.
from neighboring fields the PimaS
furnished unbelievable quantities of hay.
wheat and beans to Gen. Kearney dur
. ing the Mexican War; to the gold seek
erS Of 40; to the Army posts throughout
1.-The prolonged Apache campaign; to
Union troops recruited in California to
resist the Texas invasion Of Arizona
during the Civil War.
without Pima and Maricopa aid
the Pony Express and the Overland
Mail Co. would have been seriously
handicapped; American settlement of
California doubtless would have been
measurably delayed. The contribution
of Pima. Maricopa and Papago scouts
toward successful termination of the
Apache troubles has not yet adequately
been recognized. Hereditary enemies
of the marauding Apache. these
sedentary tribes of the middle ella
played not inconsiderable part in the
early American occupation Of Southern