446 



RECREATION. 



spawning season they frequent certain san- 

 dy, shallow waters in great numbers. Just 

 above Great Payette lake last fall, a 

 6 horse freight wagon load was caught 

 with a small seine, in 2 hours, something 

 over 2 tons of them. In fording the river 

 there during running season a team and 

 wagon will kill dozens of them. This is 

 no fairy tale. I can produce plenty of 

 witnesses who have seen it. 



One of Weiser's proudest possessions is 

 a schoolma'am who rides a wheel or a 

 bucking cayuse with equal ease. 



M. W. Miner. 



MORE INDIAN GAME BUTCHERS. 

 Kansas City, Kans., Sept. 2, 1900. 

 Editor Recreation : 



I should like to call your attention to cer- 

 tain conditions which exist in that part of 

 New Mexico adjacent to the Navajo Indian 

 reservation, especially the country around 

 Frisco, Mogollon, and Eagle peak. Every 

 January the Indians from the Navajo res- 

 ervation swoop down on this country and 

 slaughter all the game they can find. Need- 

 less to say they find almost all there is ; 

 and, armed as they are with the latest mag- 

 azine rifles, with plenty of ammunition, 

 their feet clad in noiseless moccasins, as 

 many as 100 hunters in line stretching along 

 the mountain side, few deer escape. 



Can nothing be done to prevent this? 

 Now is the time to act, and it seems to me 

 that you and the L. A. S. are the people 

 who can prevent it if anyone can. About 

 the 1st of October the Indians will com- 

 mence their hunt. Last year they had 175 

 pack animals loaded with deer and bear 

 meat when they returned to their reserva- 

 tion. Of course they kill does, bucks, and 

 fawns, and the total extermination of the 

 game is only a matter of time unless they 

 are restrained. If you require any further 

 information on the subject, I refer you to 

 Montague Stevens, Horse Springs, Soc- 

 corro county, N. M. 



Arthur St. Leger Mosse. 



Hon. E. A. Hitchcock, 



Secretary of the Interior, 

 Washington, D. C. 



Dear Sir : I hand you herewith a letter 

 just received from Mr. Arthur St. L. 

 Mosse, of Kansas City, Kan., recounting the 

 annual slaughter of the game in New Mex- 

 ico by the Navajo Indians. I beg you to 

 take such steps as may be necessary to pre- 

 vent a repetition of this revoking butchery 

 during the present autumn. 



The agent of the Navajos has ample au- 

 thority to keep the Indians on their reser- 

 vation, and I trust you may see fit to order 

 him to exercise this authority. 



I should be glad to be advised of your 

 action in the matter. 



G. O. Shields, President L. A. S. 



The Secretary of the Interior referred 

 these letters to the Commissioner of Indian 

 Affairs, who answered as follows : 



Department of the Interior, 

 Office of Indian Affairs, 

 Washington, Sept. 19, 1900. 

 The Honorable, 



The Secretary of the Interior. 



Sir : This office has the honor to ac- 

 knowledge the receipt by Department ref- 

 erence of the 13th instant for report, of a 

 communication dated the nth instant, from 

 Mr. G. O. Shields, President of the League 

 of American Sportsmen, who transmits a 

 letter of the 2d instant addressed to him by 

 Mr. Arthur St. L. Mosse, of Kansas City, 

 Kan., recounting "the annual slaughter of 

 the game in New Mexico by the Navajo 

 Indians," and requesting that steps be taken 

 by this Department to prevent a repetition 

 during the present autumn of this alleged 

 slaughter of game. 



Mr. Shields states that the agent of the 

 Navajo Agency has authority to keep the 

 Navajos on their reservation, and asks that 

 he be directed to exercise such authority. 



In reply, I have to say that a letter has 

 this day been addressed to the United States 

 Indian Agent of Navajo Agency, giving 

 him full information as to the complaint 

 made by Mr. Mosse, and instructing him 

 to take such action as may be necessary to 

 prevent, as far as possible, the Indians un- 

 der his charge from leaving their reserva- 

 tion for the purpose of unlawfully killing 

 game in the region adjacent thereto. 



It is hoped these instructions will be 

 sufficient to put a stop to the evils com- 

 plained of. 



For your full information in the prem- 

 ises, a copy of the said letter of instruc- 

 tions to the Indian agent is enclosed here- 

 with, and the correspondence referred to 

 this office for report is herewith returned, 

 together with a copy of this reply. 



A. C. Tonner, 

 Acting Commissioner. 



Thus it will be seen the League acted 

 promptly, and k is to be hoped the slaugh- 

 ter of deer by the Navajos has been 

 stopped. — Editor. 



SPORT WITH THE TERN. 



Under a big scare head, the Boston 

 Globe of October 5 prints an article occu- 

 pying nearly a column, from which I quote : 



PROVINCETOWN, Oct. 3.— The law is off, the open 

 season began Monday, and the gunners were early astir 

 to bag the mackerel, gulls or terns. 



The heavens have not been darkened the past 2 days 

 by the wheeling flocks, but thousands of terns circled grace- 

 fully above the harbor, .vhere they plunged inquest of the 

 lance with which the eel bowls were stocked. 



