Building a State in Apache Land | Page 4

came out and found Luis walking with an ununiformed Pima,
with their arms around each other's waists, according to their custom. I
inquired, "Luis, who is that?"
"That is my brother-in-law."
"Did you marry his sister?"
"No."

"Did he marry your sister?"
"No."
"Then how is he your brother-in-law?"
"We swapped wives."
Among the Pimas there is no incentive to avarice, and the accumulation
of large personal fortunes. When a Pima dies, most of his personal
property, that is, house and household belongings, which he had used
during life, is committed to the flames as a sanitary measure, and
whatever he may have left of personal property is divided among the
tribe.
The dead are buried in the ground in silence, and you can never get the
Pimas to pronounce the name of a dead man. The Pimas have many
customs resembling the Jews, especially the periodical seclusion of
women.
The Apaches have robbed them time immemorial, and they in turn
make frequent campaigns against the Apaches. When they return from
such a campaign, if they have shed blood they paint their faces black,
and seclude themselves from the women. If they have not shed blood
they paint their faces white, and enter the joys of matrimony.
The Pima handiwork in earthenware, horsehair, bridle reins, ropes, and
domestic utensils, is remarkably ingenious. They formerly cultivated
cotton and manufactured cotton cloth of a very strong quality. The men
understood spinning and weaving, and passed the winter in this
industrial pursuit.
Their subsistence is wheat, corn, melons, pumpkins, vegetables, and the
wild fruits. They have herds of cattle, plenty of horses, and great
quantities of poultry.
The Americans are indebted to the Pima Indians for provisions
furnished the California emigration, and for supplies for the early

overland stages, besides their faithful and unwavering friendship.
The habitations of these prehistoric people form the most unique of all
the anomalous dwellings of Arizona, and a more minute investigation
than has hitherto been made will show the earliest habitations of man.
There are similar edifices in Egypt and India, but they are mostly
temples. These Arizona cliff dwellings are the only edifices of the kind
that are known to have been inhabited by mankind. They exist mostly
in the mountains in the northern portion of Arizona. A more ancient
race, still, lived in the excavations on the sides of the mountains,
prepared, no doubt, as a refuge against enemies.
At the time of our first exploration (1854) there was virtually no
civilized population in the recently acquired territory. The old pueblo
of Tucson contained probably three hundred Mexicans, Indians, and
half breeds. The Pima Indians on the Gila River numbered from seven
to ten thousand, and were the only producing population. We could not
explore the country north of the Gila River, because of the Apaches,
who then numbered fully twenty thousand. For three hundred years
they have killed Spaniards, Mexicans, and Americans, which makes
about the longest continuous war on record.
It was impossible to remain with a considerable number of men in a
country destitute of sustenance; so we followed the Gila River down to
its junction with the Colorado, and camped on the bank opposite Fort
Yuma, glad to be again in sight of the American flag. The commanding
officer, Major--afterwards General--Heintzelman, issued the regulation
allowance of emigrant rations, which were very grateful to men who
had been living for some time without what are usually called the
necessaries of life. Fort Yuma was established in 1851, to suppress the
Indians on the Colorado, and to protect emigrants at the crossing.
It was apparent that the junction of the Gila and Colorado must be the
seaport of the new territory.
The Colorado was supposed to be navigable nearly seven hundred
miles, and steamboats were already at Yuma transporting supplies for
the post. By the treaty with Mexico of 1848 the boundary line was

established from the mouth of the Rio Grande northwardly to the
headwaters of the Gila River, thence along the channel of the Gila
River to its confluence with the Colorado. The treaty then says: "From
a point at the confluence of the Gila and Colorado rivers, westerly to a
point on the Pacific Ocean six miles south of the southernmost point of
the Bay of San Diego."
As the geography of the country was not well understood at the time, it
was not presumably known to the makers of the treaty that the
boundary line would include both banks of the Colorado River in the
American boundary, but it does. By a curious turn in the Colorado
River, after passing through the gorge between Fort Yuma and the
opposite bank, the boundary line of the United States includes both
banks of the River to the crossing at Pilot Knob, nearly nine miles.