58 THE PIMA INDIANS Iethann. 26 



187Q-80 



Gila Crossiruj. During this winter there was a heavy fall of snow." 



^y^ Blacl-wafer. At an abandoned store above Casa Blanca, the 



/uA walls of which are yet standing, a w^iite man was killed by 



/^ two young men, who were caught before they secured the 



money of the victim, robbery bemg the motive for the deed. The 



one w^ho did the shooting was taken to the county jail at Florence. 



1880-81 



Gila Crossin;/. At the beginning of the year a man was bitten 

 nd killed by a rattlesnake at Gila Crossing. 



Blackwater. The murderer mentioned in the record of the 

 preceding year was hanged at Florence. 



1881-82 



Gila Crossing. During a tizwin drunk at Salt River two young 

 men killed each other. The Casa Blanca people went to Gila 

 Crossing to participate in a feast and dance. 



Blackwater. The Pima police were sent from Sacaton to 

 arrest some Kwahadk's living at their village about 50 miles 

 south of the agency. Two were killed.'' 



1882 83 



Gila Crossing (a), Blackwater (b). An epidemic of measles 

 prevailed among the Pimas and Maricopas, causing the death 

 of many persons. 



a An event of such rarity that it is mentioned but twice in these records of seventy years. 



fcThe Kwahadk's had been drinking tizwin, and as they had never been interfered with bj' the agent 

 they were not conscious of having trangressed any laws. Furthermore, drunkenness was the rule among 

 the few whites with whom they came in contact, and it was a privilege that the Kwahiidk's indulged in 

 but once or twice a year. Old inhabitants at Sacaton tell me that the agent was working prisoners 

 upon a reservation farm and selling the crop for his own profit. The Pimas had been conmiitting no 

 misdemeanors or crimes that offered any excuse for imprisoning them and the crops needed attention, 

 l)Ut nevertheless he ordered his poUce to bring in the Kwahadk's dead or ahve. One of th(^ young Kwa- 

 hadk's frankly declared his innocence of any intentional transgression and defied the police to take him 

 from his home. He was promptly shot. .Vs the police were returning to Sacaton they were overtaken 

 Ijy the father of the murdered man, who told them that he had nothing to hve for, as they had killed his 

 son and they might as well kill him. The police obligingly complied with his request. "Innocent and 

 unoffending men were shot down or bowie-knifed merely for the pleasure of witnessing their death 

 agonies. Men walked the streets and pubhc squares with double-barreled shotguns, and hunted each 

 other as sportsmen hunt for game. In the graveyard of Tucson there were 47 graves of white men in 

 181)0, and of that numlier two had died natural deaths, all the rest having been murdered in bar-room 

 quarrels." I<ife Among the Apaches, by John C. Cremony, 117. 



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(.a) 



