PUEBLOS. 



285 



agricultural portions to actual settlers only, and to pre- 

 vent grabs of public lands of any kind, whether farm- 

 ing, mineral, or forest. The question continued to be 

 agitated with good results. The land department of 

 the Central Pacific Railroad Company decided to sell 

 no land to any person who would not keep and im- 

 prove it, making a large reduction, however, to such 

 persons. The railroad also proposed to retain control 

 of the land until it had been improved in the manner 

 allied upon, and reserved the right to prevent a sale 

 to speculators. Congress, on the 3d of March, 1887, 

 passed a law providing that the Secretary of the In- 

 terior shall immediately adjust, in accordance with the 

 decisions of the Supreme Court, each of the railroad 

 land grants made by Congress to aid in the construc- 

 tion of railroads, and heretofore unadjusted. In Oc- 

 tober of the same year the Commissioner of the Land 

 Office decided that an actual settler on restored rail- 

 road lands, who holds a deed from the railroad com- 

 pany, can secure title from the government under the 

 pre-emption or homestead laws, provided he has not 

 exhausted his privilege thereunder. The 5th section of 

 the act of March 3, 1887 (24th Statutes, 5006), pro- 

 vides that when lands within the limits of railroad 

 grants coterminous with the constructed portions of 

 the lines of roads, which lines have not been conveyed 

 on account of the grants, but were excepted from the 

 operations of the same, and which have been sold by 

 the railroad company to citizens, or to persons who 

 have declared their intentions to become citizens of the 

 United States, such lands at the date of purchase from 

 the railroad company not being in the bona-fide occu- 

 pation of adverse claimants under the pre-emption or 

 homestead laws of the I'liitcd States, and where claims 

 and occupations have been voluntarily abandoned, and 

 vhere such lands are not of the class described as set- 

 tled upon subsequent to the 1st day of December, 1SS2, 

 by persons claiming to enter the same under the settle- 

 ment laws of the United States, then bona-tide pur- 

 ena->Ts from the railroad com]. any, if qualified as to 

 citizenship, their heirs or assigns, may make payment to 

 the United States .'or such lands at the ordinary gov- 

 ernment price for like lauds, and receive patents there- 

 for. 



As the result of the agitation relating to forfeitures 

 it is now stated that the adjustment of the grant to 

 one wairon-road and '.'.'I railroads has been completed. 

 This adjustment discloses the fact that 7 railroads and 

 one wagon-road have had land certified or patented to 

 them in excess of their respective grants to the amount 

 of 218,5'JO acres, and suits are recommended, under 

 said act, to vacate such illegal patents or certificates. 

 There are 2iM)0 forfeiture eases pending in the U. S. 

 Land Office, and lands in the indemnity limits of the 

 Northern Pacific, the Atlantic and Pacific, the South- 

 ern Pacific, tiie California and Oregon, and the Ore- 

 gon and California roads, to the extent of 17.S3IUMH) 

 are affected by these cases. Of the 25.429.866 

 acres of land covered by selections pending at the close 

 of the fiscal year, 1888, 21,660,4M. acres were selected 

 by railroad companies whose roads were not completed 

 in the time required by their respective grants. It has 

 been recommended that there should be forfeiture of 

 nil lands coterminous with those parts of the respective 

 roads which were uncompleted at the expiration of the 

 limited time for their construction. 



The future of the country depends largely upon the 

 pettlcrs that will occupy the unoccupied public lands. 

 Upon the ownership of these lands by sniall holders 

 he security of the country from internal disturb- 

 ances. It is stated that in England only 1 person in 

 20 is an owner of land ; in Scotland, 1 in L'5 ; in Ire- 

 land, 1 in 7'.) ; and that the great majority of land- 

 holders in Great Britain own less than one acre each. 

 From past experience it is not likely that any such rec- 

 ord as this can ever be made in regard to the public 

 lands of the United States. But it would seem that 

 the laws should be so amended that the same settler 



cannot take ]30 acres under the Homestead Act ; 130 

 acres under the Pre-emption Act ; 040 acres under the 

 Desert Land Act; and 1(10 acres under the Timber 

 Culture Act a total of 1060 acres. (F. G. M.) 



PUEBLOS, an interesting family of Indians of 

 New Mexico and Arizona, agricultural in their 

 habits, and dwelling iu very large, single habita- 

 tions, sometimes capacious enough to contain a whole 

 tribe. They are also known as Village Indians, vil- 

 lage being the English rendering of the Spanish 

 pueblo. The remarkable edifices built by these scmi- 

 ciyilizcd tribes are in some cases constructed of stone 

 laid in mud mortar, but more generally of adobe or 

 sun-dried brick. They cover a considerable area and 

 are several stories high, sometimes 5 or 6. They are 

 in some cases built in the form of a hollow square ; in 

 others on the brow of a high bluff or mountain terrace 

 of difficult approach. Defence against enemies seems, 

 indeed, an essential feature in their construction, and 

 the lower story is invariably without doors or windows, 

 the only entrance to the house being attained by lad- 

 ders leading to the second story. Each story recedes a 

 few feet from the line of that below it, leaving a ter- 

 race, which extends round the whole structure, to 

 which this successive decrease in area of the stories 

 gives something of a pyramidal aspect. There are no 

 stairways anywhere in the edifice, all access to higher 

 stories being attained by ladders. In some of these 

 extensive edifices whole communities, numbering from 

 300 to 700 souls, reside, each family having a single 

 apartment. Should this become overcrowded by in- 

 crease of the family another apartment is occupied, or 

 if there be none vacant, a new one is built above, thus 

 adding to the height of the building. In each edifice 

 there are reserved one or more large rooms capable of 

 holding several hundred persons. These form the 

 council-chambers of the tribe, and are also used for 

 the tribal dances, of which there are several kinds, ap- 

 parently connected with religious rites. 



There are 19 of these villages in New Mexico, most 

 of which have been occupied for a very long period, 

 their inhabitants obtaining a livelihood by the cultiva- 

 tion of the soil, in which they have considerable skill. 

 Their occupants number over 8000 souls and possess 

 about 900,000 acres of land, but only 100,000 are 

 tillable. On these they raise maize, wheat, vegetables, 

 fruit, and cotton, while they possess considerable herds 

 of horses, cattle, mules, goats, and sheep. The rain- 

 less character of the region renders irrigation neces- 

 sary, and they have a well-devised system of ditches, 

 many of which have been in use for centuries. They 

 are economical in their habits and hard workers, each 

 heid of a family having a farm of his own, not well 

 cultivated according to our ideas, yet sufficiently so to 

 provide the necessaries of life. As a people they are 

 quiet, honest, and law-abiding, take good care of the 

 farming implements with which the government has 

 provided them, and are making slow but steady prog- 

 ress in education and civilization. In addition to agri- 

 culture they possess certain simple industrial arts, 

 spinning and weaving cotton and wool into fabrics for 

 clothing and heavy blankets, while they have some 

 skill in the manufacture of [lottery, which they orna- 

 ment with various designs in color and geometrical 

 figures. Their warlike habits are of a barbarous 

 character, approaching those of the Aztecs. It is said 

 that when an enemy is killed in battle they cut off his 

 scalp, drink his blood, and bathe their iiices and gar- 

 ments in it. Then they wet their hands in it, believing 

 it will increase their strength and courage. The scalp 

 of an enemy is placed in the hands of him who first 

 took it, even if he was not present at the killing, and 

 he is afterwards regarded with distinction, as if he had 

 performed some great deed of valor. It can, fortu- 

 nately, be said that all this refers to tlieir former cus- 

 toms, as they have no opportunity or incitement under 

 present conditions to indulge in hostilities. 



In addition to the New Mexican tribes there are a 



