All that the “Tombstone Toughs” did in the way of war was to fire upon one old Indian, a decrepit member of “Eskiminzin’s” band, which had been living at peace on the lower San Pedro ever since permission had been granted them to do so by General Howard; they were supporting themselves by farming and stock-raising, and were never accused of doing harm to any one all the time they remained in that place. White settlers lived all around them with whom their relations were most friendly. The “Toughs” fired at this old man and then ran away, leaving the white women of the settlements, whose husbands were nearly all absent from home, to bear the brunt of vengeance. I have before me the extract from the Citizen of Tucson, which describes this flight of the valiant “Toughs”: “leaving the settlers to fight it out with the Indians and suffer for the rash acts of these senseless cowards, who sought to kill a few peaceable Indians, and thereby gain a little cheap notoriety, which cannot result otherwise than disastrously to the settlers in that vicinity.” “The attack of the Rangers was shameful, cowardly, and foolish. They should be taken care of at once, and punished according to the crime they have committed.” It is only just that the above should be inserted as a proof that there are many intelligent, fair-minded people on the frontier, who deprecate and discountenance anything like treachery towards Indians who are peaceably disposed.
By the terms of the conference entered into between the Secretary of the Interior, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, the Secretary of War, and Brigadier-General Crook, on the 7th of July, 1883, it was stipulated that “the Apache Indians recently captured, and all such as may hereafter be captured or may surrender, shall be kept under the control of the War Department at such points on the San Carlos Reservation as may be determined by the War Department, but not at the agency without the consent of the Indian agent—to be fed and cared for by the War Department until further orders.... The War Department shall be intrusted with the entire police control of all the Indians on the San Carlos Reservation. The War Department shall protect the Indian agent in the discharge of his duties as agent, which shall include the ordinary duties of an Indian agent and remain as heretofore except as to keeping peace, administering justice, and punishing refractory Indians, all of which shall be done by the War Department.”
In accordance with the terms of the above conference, five hundred and twelve of the Chiricahua Apaches—being the last man, woman, and child of the entire band—were taken to the country close to Camp Apache, near the head-waters of the Turkey Creek, where, as well as on a part of the White River, they were set to work upon small farms. Peace reigned in Arizona, and for two years her record of deaths by violence, at the hands of red men at least, would compare with the best record to be shown by any State in the East; in other words, there were no such deaths and no assaults. That Apaches will work may be shown by the subjoined extracts from the official reports, beginning with that of 1883, just one year after the re-assignment of General Crook to the command: “The increase of cultivation this year over last I believe has been tenfold. The Indians during the past year have raised a large amount of barley, which they have disposed of, the largest part of it being sold to the Government for the use of the animals in the public service here. Some has been sold to the Indian trader, and quite an amount to freighters passing through between Wilcox and Globe. Their corn crop is large; I think, after reserving what will be needed for their own consumption and seed for next year, they will have some for sale. The only market they have for their produce is from freighters, the trader, and the Q. M. Department here. They are being encouraged to store their corn away and use it for meal; for this purpose there should be a grist-mill here and one at Fort Apache. They have cut and turned in during the year to the Q. M. Department and at the agency about four hundred tons of hay cut with knives and three hundred cords of wood, for which they have been paid a liberal price.” Attached to the same report was the following: “Statement showing the amount of produce raised by the Apache Indians on the White Mountain Indian Reservation during the year 1883: 2,625,000 lbs. of corn, 180,000 lbs. of beans, 135,000 lbs. of potatoes, 12,600 lbs. of wheat, 200,000 lbs. of barley, 100,000 pumpkins, 20,000 watermelons, 10,000 muskmelons, 10,000 cantelopes. Small patches of cabbage, onions, cucumbers, and lettuce have been raised. (Signed) Emmet Crawford, Captain Third Cavalry, Commanding.”
I have seen Indian bucks carrying on their backs great bundles of hay cut with knives, which they sold in the town of Globe to the stable owners and keepers of horses.
During that winter General Crook wrote the following letter, which expresses his views on the subject of giving the franchise to Indians; it was dated January 5, 1885, and was addressed to Mr. Herbert Welsh, Secretary of the Indian Rights Association, Philadelphia:
“My Dear Mr. Welsh:
“The law prohibiting the sale of liquor to Indians is practically a dead letter. Indians who so desire can to-day obtain from unprincipled whites and others all the vile whiskey for which they can pay cash, which is no more and no less than the Indian as a citizen could purchase. The proposition I make on behalf of the Indian is, that he is at this moment capable, with very little instruction, of exercising every manly right; he doesn’t need to have so much guardianship as so many people would have us believe; what he does need is protection under the law; the privilege of suing in the courts, which privilege must be founded upon the franchise to be of the slightest value.
“If with the new prerogatives, individual Indians continue to use alcoholic stimulants, we must expect to see them rise or fall socially as do white men under similar circumstances. For my own part, I question very much whether we should not find the Indians who would then be drunkards to be the very same ones who under present surroundings experience no difficulty whatever in gratifying this cursed appetite. The great majority of Indians are wise enough to recognize the fact that liquor is the worst foe to their advancement. Complaints have frequently been made by them to me that well-known parties had maintained this illicit traffic with members of their tribe, but no check could be imposed or punishment secured for the very good reason that Indian testimony carries no weight whatever with a white jury. Now by arming the red men with the franchise, we remove this impediment, and provide a cure for the very evil which seems to excite so much apprehension; besides this, we would open a greater field of industrial development. The majority of the Indians whom I have met are perfectly willing to work for their white neighbors, to whom they can make themselves serviceable in many offices, such as teaming, herding, chopping wood, cutting hay, and harvesting; and for such labor there is at nearly all times a corresponding demand at reasonable wages. Unfortunately, there are many unscrupulous characters to be found near all reservations who don’t hesitate after employing Indians to defraud them of the full amount agreed upon. Several such instances have been brought to my notice during the present year, but there was no help for the Indian, who could not bring suit in the courts. Every such swindle is a discouragement both to the Indian most directly concerned and to a large circle of interested friends, who naturally prefer the relations of idleness to work which brings no remuneration.
“Our object should be to get as much voluntary labor from the Indian as possible. Every dollar honestly gained by hard work is so much subtracted from the hostile element and added to that which is laboring for peace and civilization. In conclusion, I wish to say that the American Indian is the intellectual peer of most, if not all, the various nationalities we have assimilated to our laws, customs, and language. He is fully able to protect himself if the ballot be given, and the courts of law not closed against him. If our aim be to remove the aborigine from a state of servile dependence, we cannot begin in a better or more practical way than by making him think well of himself, to force upon him the knowledge that he is part and parcel of the nation, clothed with all its political privileges, entitled to share in all its benefits. Our present treatment degrades him in his own eyes, by making evident the difference between his own condition and that of those about him. To sum up, my panacea for the Indian trouble is to make the Indian self-supporting, a condition which can never be attained, in my opinion, so long as the privileges which have made labor honorable, respectable, and able to defend itself, be withheld from him.”
Chancellor Kent has well said that unity increases the efficiency, by increasing the responsibility, of the executive. This rule applies to every department of life. The dual administration of the Apache reservation, by the Departments of War and the Interior, did not succeed so well as was at first expected: there were constant misunderstandings, much friction, with complaints and recriminations. Captain Crawford had won in a remarkable degree the esteem and confidence of the Indians upon the reservation, who looked up to him as a faithful mentor and friend. They complained that certain cows which had been promised them were inferior in quality, old and past the age for breeding, and not equal to the number promised. This complaint was forwarded through the routine channels to Washington, and the Interior Department ordered out an inspector who reported every thing serene at the agency and on the reservation. The report did not satisfy either Indians or whites, but upon receiving the report of its inspecting officer the Interior Department requested that Captain Crawford be relieved, coupling the request with remarks which Crawford took to be a reflection upon his character; he thereupon demanded and was accorded by his military superiors a court of inquiry, which was composed of Major Biddle, Sixth Cavalry, Major Purington, Third Cavalry, Captain Dougherty, First Infantry, as members, and First Lieutenant George S. Anderson, Sixth Cavalry, as Recorder. This court, all of whose members were officers of considerable experience in the Indian country, and one of whom (Dougherty) had been in charge of one of the largest Sioux reservations in Dakota, set about its work with thoroughness, examined all witnesses and amassed a quantity of testimony in which it was shown that the Apaches had good ground of complaint both in the character and in the number of cows supplied them: they were in many cases old and unserviceable, and instead of there being one thousand, there were scarcely six hundred, the missing cattle being covered by what was termed a “due bill,” made out by the contractor, agreeing to drive in the missing ones upon demand.