Page:On the border with Crook - Bourke - 1892.djvu/476

 to be under the care of the great fly-god Beelzebub. The conventions entered into with General Howard and Vincent Collyer, which these Apaches had respected to the letter—nay, more, the personal assurances given by the President of the United States to old "Pedro" during a visit made by the latter to Washington—were all swept away like cobwebs, while the conspirators laughed in their sleeves, because they knew a trick or two worth all of that. They had only to report by telegraph that the Apaches were "uneasy," "refused to obey the orders of the agent," and a lot more stuff of the same kind, and the Great Father would send in ten regiments to carry out the schemes of the ring, but he would never send one honest, truthful man to inquire whether the Apaches had a story or not.

It is within the limits of possibility, that as the American Indians become better and better acquainted with the English language, and abler to lay their own side of a dispute before the American people, there may be a diminution in the number of outbreaks, scares, and misunderstandings, which have cost the taxpayers such fabulous sums, and which I trust may continue to cost just as much until the tax-payer shall take a deeper and more intelligent interest in this great question. Another fact brought out in this conference was the readiness with which agents and others incarcerated Indians in guard-houses upon charges which were baseless, or at least trivial. At other times, if the charges were grave, nothing was done to press the cases to trial, and the innocent as well as the guilty suffered by the long imprisonment, which deprived the alleged criminals of the opportunity to work for the support of their families. The report of the Federal Grand Jury of Arizona—taken from the Star, of Tucson, Arizona, October 24, 1882—shows up this matter far more eloquently than I am able to do, and I need not say that a frontier jury never yet has said a word in favor of a red man unless the reasons were fully patent to the ordinary comprehension.

, District Judge:

The greatest interest was felt in the examination into the cases of the eleven Indian prisoners brought here for trial from San Carlos. The United States District Attorney had spent much time in preparing this investigation. The Department of Justice had peremptorily ordered that these cases should be disposed of at this term of court. Agent Wilcox had notified the district attorney that he should release these Indians by October 1st if they were not