RUSSELL] RELATIONS WITH AMERICANS 33 



Agent R. G. Wheeler protested against the diversion of the water 

 of the Gihi from the Pima reservation at the time the Florence canal 

 was j)rojected in 1886 and succeeded in gaining the attention of the 

 Department of the Interior which instructed the Director of the Geo- 

 logical Survey to investigate the matter. As a result of the investi- 

 gation the followino; facts were established: 



(1) That the water supply of the Pima and Maricopa reservations under present 

 conditions is no more than suflTicieut fur the wants of the Indians. 



(2) That the construction of a dam by the Florence Canal Company of the character 

 represented in the correspondence will give the control substantially of all the waters 

 of the Gila river. 



(4) That if till' water supply from the river be shut off, the Indian reservation would 

 become uninhabitable. 



Other facts were presented, but these are the essential ones that 

 directly concern us here." Notwithstanding the above finding, no 

 eftective efforts were made to prevent the water from being diverted 

 from the reservation, and the result was nearly as predicted — a result 

 that shoidd bring a blush of shame to every true American. A thrifty, 

 industrious, and peaceful people that had been in effect a friendly 

 nation rendering succor and assistance to emigrants and troops for 

 many years when they sorely needed it was deprived of the rights 

 inhering from centuries of residence. The marvel is that the starva- 

 tion, despair, and dissipation that resulted did not overwhelm the 

 tribe. 



AGENTS 



In 1857 John Walker was appointed Indian agent for the territory 

 embraced in the Gadsden Purchase, with headquarters at Tucson. 

 The Pimas were of course within liis territorj-, though his control 

 over them could not have been very great with the agency separated 

 from the callages by a 90-mile stretch of desert in the scarcelj- dis- 

 puted possession of the Apaches. W^alker presented no report to his 

 superior at Santa Fe in 1858, but in 1859 gave some account of the 

 condition of the Pimas. 



In 1864 Charles D. Poston was appointed superintendent of Indian 

 afl'airs for Arizona, but he resigned that year. He was succeeded by 

 four others during the next eight years, at the end of which period 

 the office was abolished. Abraham Lyons was appointed agent for 

 the Pimas in 1862, and he also lived at Tucson. Ammi M. White, 

 appointed in 1864, was a resident trader. He had built a mill at Casa 

 Blanca, which was destroyed by the flood of September, 1868. Levi 

 Ruggles, appointed in 1866, administered affairs from Tucson. Dur- 

 ing 1867 C. II. Lord acted as deputy agent. Fairh' adequate adobe 

 buildings were erected for the agent at Sacaton in 1870, and the agents 



a U. S. Gcol. Surv., Water-Supply and Irrigation Papers, no. 33, p. 10. 

 26 ETH— 08 5 



