The news-herald. (Plattsmouth, Neb.) 1909-1911, March 18, 1909, Image 3
f.i.Kr,:a:,iirrfrr.s.lAT imio me dollar loving Amor- of Mexico i,v mo tfUmrA'TiONS NVW frMy) h xwr- kW I !!r f V ; J'" 4 Ivil'L ( V S m A J lean has done In ,ryinK and pe-p- Spanish in nil), , VV WJlA & f 'kMS HvAWfcJr f ' Ll-nl-li ' V jlK J V A KntU.egr..atnaturaUr,asuro and from an os- TjT OC ) M f -'45 TJft yvl house, of Honora conv.n,,,, hl.u tlmuW,, ,,, Ow ' V '1 ., V V f -vinro Wa a country wo,. W) the raco W S I ? V ' 1 woiih rxploitinir. If more than lias ieadily d.v -N": 4rV;';i ?? -V"'' J I'lBtw r. '-l '5 -il s V f V' r R ' r!'V 1 H'V.'W 'ifSXfE !"-haMy the fact, then, from all mo,. inc,:,ant Lkfi $y&P&S&A 1 feiT WH :'. 'P'.;V- tesmSSmg "n-i. of Sonora are proper.y 40.000 a, the ft! life?S8 1 M W feMfe2 (Plfe Jrf MAT liltlo the dollar lovim; Amer ican haa done in pryiiiK ami pep ing Into the grcatnatural tn asure louses of Sonora convinced lilm yi ars ao that that weBtern Mexi can province was a country well woiih exploititi!?. If more than half of the hilver of the world lias rno out of Mexico, as is jn-obaldy the fact, then, from all reports, when the ar.uentiferoiis deposits of Sonora are properly opened up three-fourths of the world's silver wi!l come from the land of Diaz. Sonora has been exporting $12.OO'),00fl to flj.OuO.WiO of silver a year and rould have exported five times that amount and an incalculable quantity of pdd but for one reason the country has not been safe lor white people, except in the larger towns, been use of the warlike Yaquis, who have been battling for generations against the Mexicans. nut now the good news has been flashed ever the wires that Ihe lon.sj drawn Yariul war is at an end and that a treaty favorable to the Indians has been negotiated, so that soon there will be such an inrush of greedy grinpoes, as the Mexicans call us, Into Sonora as has never been seen before, l'or there will be no more night attacks upon ore wagon and supply trains, no more ter rorizing of tho miners In their prospect holes and no moro rushes to the gun rack in the lonely cabin on the mesa. It is characteristic of our commercial age that the chief interest of t lit? white people in the Yaqul uprisings has not been a humane but a financial one. Altholigh Americans have obtained concessions from the Mexican government of niinin?, cattle and farming lands, they have never been able to hold undisputed sway over them. Now the hardy gringo will descend upon Sonora, bi-..v upon a conquest far more thorough than that of Clen. Scott in ISIS. Ho lusts for the silver and gold hidden under the Sonora mountains, for great bands of cattle and for the fruits of the lertlle valleys, and he will have them. Not that the Americans have heui essentially hostile to the Yaquis, for many guns and much ammunition have been taken over the border to aid them in their des perate fight, but that when Diaz has seen lit to parcel off u comfortable section of Yaqui land here and there to an enterprising Yankee for a con sideration it has boon only natural that Yaqui and Yank should have be come embroiled at times. "The Yaqui Indians are the most stubborn lighters on earth," said Presi dent Diaz of Mexico eight years ago, "and if ever wo are to put them down we must strike at the root of their race wo must exile their women and chil dren." So, month by month, since then thou sands of the little brown women of the Yaqui nation in Sonora have been torn from their homes on reservations and elsewhere, rounded up at. (Juaymas, on the west coast of Mexico, and, with their children, deported to San Hlasand Jhence across country to the far fever lands of Yucatan, where many of them tiave died. None have ever returned to Sonera. This means of subduing a race that tias been In almost constant warfare against the Mexican government for more than HO years has at last been infective, although It has been neces sity at the same time to keep from 2, Del) to n.OOO troops In readiness or fr. tho Hold to light ihv diminishing band of Yaquis, who have proved thorn 'elves as valiant and as unyielding ns the liners. The last two stands of the Yaquis have recently been reported in the dis patches. One of these wa.s tn a moun tain canyon just north of Altar, where Ihe Mexicans and I'npagos lured the Yaquis Into ambush and killed a large number of them. The other and con cluding engagement followed a skir inisli that w.is made by the Mexicans southeast of 1 b I'liiosillo, the capital of Sonora, in which ii was reported that tlu'.e, the chief of the Yaquis, was killed tind ion of his nun were slain. After tbi bloody battle the renitnint of the Yaqui forces engaged In that fight iiiuk died into I lerniosillo and surrt-n-.I red. So many other events have been tak ing place on this populous planet, and the alTalis of Sono-a enter so little lulu the eniisiih ration ef the people on this rim of the continent, with the ex repiioti of those Aimriean rapii-lists who have loieied to un. uM! the tnlt.hr: tnasun s of that rich gold and nlver ei'untry. that we have 1"v more interested In college fo'itlall ioi;te;ts than in Ibis terrib'e warfare that l.i.s I.e. n going on within live days' railway jmiMiev ef New Yolk for the la.-t three decades and even lote;er. l'or. as a matter of fact, the Yaqui. i have never been Ut pLAt lVl'll I heir heiedilliy foe ;!l.ce the eonq'teM of Mexico by the Spanish in l'li), and from an es timated popula tion in K'.') of L'Oit.OO') the race has steadily de clined, ehielly be cause of its al most Incc.-ant warfare, to about lO.DiiO at. the present day. Having regard ed the Yaqui at close range and h a v I n R studied him and marked what manner of man lie Is any one may be ex cused for an ad miration of him that surpasses my appreciation of any other of the native races of North America. Assuredly these people are the most industrioiH and most civil ized of all Indian tribes, being for the most part farmers, miners and craftsmen, and far superior to the average Sonoran of the haciendas a n d villages, who will not work while he has a peso in his pocket and while mescal can bo hail at the mm tit SS' .'El lw ill. ! wi; eg -B? YAQUIS JN PSC?A . YARD q--g ft M " fwwTeTejTTITTiTMTt mi.iiii.ni.iiiiuinT.TfiTrrmTT-M .uuiiiiiiiiitP hSL x.r r T 9 ZS V MOv- v J. I V II in a warfare that has not been that of savages In fact, been fully ns humane as that of Its foe- tfw II IHIiiHi.liiil.il m YAQVI VmJU k 1 II I u fiUtf m i 14 QQOGC 30 &ATTJLGRQUNDj . he enters the army, is general cant ilia, and who, when : cut there from Jail. As for tin- Yaqui as a fiuhli r. be has proved himself a better man i vit. than the Ajai he, while resoitim,' to few, If any, ef the Apache's bloodthirsty trick of war fare. The Yaqui army has been r gulaily orgieil.:. d up to the .-st yctr, has bent well drilled in t!i use of !.. rille, has had Its generals and colonels and captains, and has giv. n such a g u! account of itself that I! ,a kept ","00 .Mexican troops, under t! u. Toi n s h i . all the whih has. men. It is not necessary to go back any further than 187X to get a good Idea of what the Yaquis have been doing in Irving lo hold their own against the people of Spanish descent In Mexico. In that year, because of trespass upon their lands and because the Mexicans had takm large numbers of them lo work upon their ranches in practical slavery, these tremulously tenacious lighters re sumed hostilities after a short period of peace. Ceii. Cajctnl, (heir governor, took command and for seven years held the asses and strongholds against u.OOO troops under Gen. pesquiera. Although the Yaquis gave a good account of them selves, they lost many men and Gen. Cajeml was cap tured and shot. Still the defensive war was continued, and when nt last the Mexicans drove them out of their strongholds and captured their mines there came a pe riod during which only desultory raids upon the hacien das were made. During that period the Yaqui women and boys and some of the non-combatant men of the tribe went out to earn money In the mines, ranches and fisheries to buy arms and ammunition to carry on the light. A number of American miners who had been unable peaceably to work 'their mines brought about the peace of Oritz In May, lS'.tT. The government then began to take Yaqui hoys from the reservations and send litem to Vera Cruz, on the other side of the continent, to make soldiers of them. These boys were as good if not better sharpshooters than the Door youth, and the Yaquis saw that in thus depriving them of what, would be a great source of reliance In future battle they would eventually have to give up all hope of ever holding their own. So that the peaee of Oritz only lasted a few mouths before there was nnothcr uprising and more fighting, chiefly of a guerilla nature, which continued for several jears. Meantime every cent that the non-combatants of the tribe could earn and save was handed over to the chiefs, who bouj-'lit with this money enough Mauser rifles ami mountain howitzers to equip very decently an army of fi.oni) men, under Gen. Tetaviate, who. In April, is;:i, took the Held after having made this statement: "We Yaquis are a peaceful and Industrious people. When the Mexicans want workers for their mines or factories they come to us. We do not want war. We have never wanted It. but we want our rights. We made a m aty of peace with the Mexican gin t rnuieni, tmr herd Hary foe, in May. 1 s: 7. aft r a long series of warr, th" last of which was more than ten years in duration. We Intended to keep faith villi the government or Mexico, but It has pursued a course of cne ! encroachment ami menace, We are now ready to light It again, and all the buttles of the past wlil be as nothing compared with the bl.'oibhed that will follow our entry into the held." Gen. Ti tavla'e bei-an operation in the;' lower valley id the Kio Yaqui. v.lure his men dr.nreremt the white settleis upon Yaqui lands. They cut the telegraph wires anil de.-ticiye. other means of communication, and It was some time lif forc the hastily summoned Firth cavalry and Kb venih and Twelfth Infantry companies could bo marched against them. Then followed a series ol battles which generally concluded unsat isfactorily ror tho Mexicans, though there was an occasional rounding tip of the rebels in which large numbers of them were slaughtered. On tho approach of the troops the Indians usually took up slrong positions in the mountain fast nesses. One large battel fortified Itself in the iireate to range, jSetween the Yaqui and Matopo rivers, and another In tho Sahuarlpa mountains. Kfforls wero made to kec-p these two bands opart, but tho working Yaquis all over Sonora and In California and Arizona were constant ly coming In and joining with their brethr'-n and tho depredations upon the ranches and villages were widespread. Meantime the; Mexlrans gathered In the women and children of their foomen for deportation to Yucatan, following tho demand of Diaz to "exterminate tho Ya quis." Maddened by this and by the rcqorts thai the women and children were not merely deported, but that t hoy were taken out into the Gulf of Califor nia and thrown ove rboard from the troop the despe rate Iti'llnns attacked the; haclon thre.itencel Ihe larger towns. Terror mad, of Negah s I'ed from their homes, and for ship Oaxaea, ras and also the eitizens a time martial law was proclaimed over the fear-stricken city of Hi rmoMllo, the capital or Sonora. During the height of the excitement, troops were coming In bringing women and children for deportation, ami also an occa sional band of Yaqui soldiers, who wero generally thrust Into prison oer eight and in tho morning take n out, lined up ami shot. One of the most terrible slaughters during the last war upon the Yaquis occurred In June. 11102. One evening 300 armed Yaquis descended upon four haciendas near 1 ler niosillo ami took i.way (inO of their tribe, including women and chihlre n, who were the re; employed. The hand marche d toward I're s, reached Maza'iin mountain, and while waiting for the Mexican scddlers made bows, ar rows ami spears for those who we re unarmed. On June lf OtiO Mexican scddlers came around the mountains, surprised the; Ya ;ais, chased the armed war riors down the mountain, killing many of them and ta king all the; hacienda folk prisoners. Soon after the skirmish Ales Ilrdlicka, representing tho American mu seum, found tn a littl ravine on the mountain sldo the bodies of (.1 of the Indians, including a number of wom en, a little girl and a baby. The; skulls of m arly all the victims were so shatteued by Mauser bullets as to be of no use for the' museum for whl h Ilrdlicka w:is collecting. In the hospital at Ilermosi'lo In 1'JOJ there were as many as 1- wounded women ami a girl of se ven with three bullet wounds in her body. As anothe r example oil brave Mexican warfare "00 wom en and children who were captured near the Hancho Vlejo were kept In a corral uikIit guard for two days, during which time they were given nothing to cat but two and one-half bushels of raw corn, on which they subsisted until night, when they were marched to llvrmoslllo, 22 miles away. In July, ll'tij, an a'tempt was made by the Mexicans to surround l!0 Yaquis In the San Mateo foothills, but Ihe Indians levuned cf what was afoot, slipped Into a side valley before tho ailvance of the troops, ami In the? night strangled the si'titrie and, proceeding over to the sleeqdng sohiiets, sh w the whole- column in the darkness and hound the eliicers lo tho trees, where they were found wie-n re lief came. One reason wh the last ten ye ars' war has been nioi bloody than any th: t preceded it was that Ihe Moxieat .' Jtuvertimiuit electe ed that every Yaqui living on tho p? c-Mos or wiit King on ranches or tiny where else wai to r treated as a prisoner of war. Cualitic'8 in Men. A sail nature sheds forth twilight. A merry and mlr ful nature brings .laylight. A suspicious nature Insensi bly Imparts ill chill to evey generous soul within its reach. A bold ami fran'.i nature overcomes meanness In men. Fiu"us make s ihem linn. Firmness make them Hue. Taste directs, stimulates and develops taste. - I leiiry Waul IVi'chor. J