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 A^10ffG THE PiHAS 
 

 Cornell University Library 
 E 99.P6L15 
 
 Among the Pimas 
 
 3 1924 028 666 836 
 
 CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 FROM 
 
 Mrs. ,T.H. Tanner 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tiiis bool< is in 
 tile Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028666836 
 
AMONG THE PIMAS 
 
 OR 
 
 THE MISSION TO THE 
 
 PIMA AND MARICOPA INDIANS. 
 
 *' With their names 
 No bard embalms and sanctifies his song : 
 And history so warm on meaner themes, 
 Is cold on this." 
 
 FEINTED FOR 
 THE LADIES^ UNION MISSION SCHOOL ASSOCIATION, 
 ■^ ALBANY, N. Y. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Introduction, - 5 
 
 Chapter First, 18 
 
 Mr. Cook's narrative of his journey to Arizona, 
 with a sltetch of his early life. 
 
 Chapter Second, 35 
 
 Biographical sketch of Mrs. Anna M. Cook. 
 
 Chapter Third, - 47 
 
 Visit of Rev. Sheldon Jackson, D. D., at the 
 Pima Agency and Mr. Cook's commission as 
 a missionary of the Presbyterian Church. 
 
 Chapter Fourth, - - - - - - 5t 
 
 The Pima Indians, their manners and customs, 
 by Rev. Isaac T. Whittemore. 
 
 Chapter Fifth, ------ 97 
 
 The Ladies' Union Mission School Association 
 and its connection with the mission to the 
 Pimas. 
 
 Chapter Sixth, 115 
 
 The Gila River Reservation, climate, soil, pro- 
 ductions and ancient ruins. 
 An old missionary's story. 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 1. Mission House and Chapel at Pima 
 
 Agency. 
 
 2. Antonio Azul — his son and grandson. 
 
 3. A Pima village. 
 
 4 The Giant Cactus of Arizona. 
 5. The Casa Grande Ruin. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The object of the present volume is to 
 show the providence of God in the fulfiU- 
 inent of his purpose to send the gospel to the 
 friendly Indians living on the Gila river 
 reservation in the territory of Arizona. 
 
 The condition of these Indians, with their 
 deprivation of the privileges enjoyed by other 
 inhabitants of our highly favored country, 
 was brought to our knowledge through the 
 officers of the U. S. Army in. the year 1868. 
 
 These officers, General Frederick Town- 
 send and Gen. A. J. Alexander . being on 
 military duty in Arizona, became acquainted 
 with the Pima and Maricopa Indians, and 
 when, a few years later an association of 
 ladies in the state of New York was found to 
 promote mission work in our country, an 
 appeal was made to them in behalf of the 
 Indians of the Gila river reservation, Gen. 
 A._ J. Alexander, then stationed at Fort Mc- 
 Dowell, Arizona, addressed to one of the 
 members of the new association the follow- 
 ing letter : 
 
6 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 Fort McDowell, Arizona, Ter. 
 October i8, 1868. 
 " I have just returned from a ten days' scout in the 
 mountains, which was very successful. I was accom- 
 panied by one hundred Pima and Maricopa Indians, 
 whose wild ways and picturesque appearance were 
 highly interesting. I have acquired a great deal of 
 influence over them, since I led the whole band in a 
 charge over hills, rocks and streams. After my return I 
 had a very interesting conversation with Antonio Azul, 
 the chief of the Pimas, who told me he would welcome 
 any person I would send to teach them, and that the 
 children should go to school. These Indians are docile 
 and friendly, and easily approached. As several white 
 men reside near them, who speak their language per- 
 fectly, it could be easily acquired. I told Antonio that 
 the good people in the east, who loved the Indians, 
 would send a good man to come and live there and teach 
 them ; that he did not want land or money from them, 
 but would come only to do them good, and whatever he 
 told them would be good, and he could trust him. He 
 said it was very good and wanted to know when he 
 would come.'' 
 
 A letter was subsequently received from 
 Mrs. Alexander, in which she said, that her 
 husband before leaving the post on military 
 duty desired her "to urge upon her friends 
 at home, the importance of sending a mis- 
 sionary or teachers to this interesting tribe of 
 Indians, now living in the heart of Arizona. 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 7 
 
 " There are about five thousand souls in this 
 tribe and though they have been living for 
 . two or three generations in their present 
 reservation, cultivating the soil in a rude way, 
 they are still sunk in the lowest depth of 
 heathenish superstition." 
 
 "The most intelligent of the Indians — and 
 there are many such — are anxious for instruc- 
 tion. There are two white men living at their 
 villages, — (one of them a licensed trader) — 
 who have a thorough acquaintance with their 
 language, and could assist a new-comer in 
 acquiring it. They make it their boast that 
 they have never killed a white man, but that 
 while they are at deadly enmity with the 
 Apaches, they are the white mans friends." 
 
 It is supposed that there are in Arizona, 
 about thirty-four thousand Indians, not one 
 of whom has ever yet been instructed in the 
 christian faith. 
 
 The president of the new society, Mrs. 
 Julia M. Graham, and the secretary, Mrs. 
 Florence K. Prentice, were personal friends 
 of General and Mrs. Alexander, and being 
 warmly attached to them, they entered heart- 
 ily into their plans tor the welfare of the 
 Indians, with whose needs they had become 
 
6 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 familiar during their residence in the vicinity 
 of their reservation. On General Alexander's 
 return from his distant post of duty, he was 
 invited to meet with the ladies of the associa- 
 tion, and at their request, on a subsequent 
 visit to Washington, he represented to the 
 Department of the Interior, the desire of the 
 Indians on the Gila river reservation for 
 schools and teachers. A letter was addressed 
 to the Indian commissioner at Washington 
 by the association, to which the following 
 response was made : 
 
 Washington, June 17, 1869. 
 
 Madam : — I have the pleasure to acknowledge the 
 receipt of a letter dated the 7th inst., accompanied by 
 a printed report of the Ladies Missionary' Association 
 for New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado ; also a letter 
 addressed to the Secretary of the Interior of the 8th 
 inst. These letters call attention to the project in 
 view by the association, of a mission and school among 
 the Pima and Maricopa Indians in Arizona, and refer- 
 ence is had to a report made by my predecessor to the 
 Secretary of the Interior, on the 22d of February last, 
 suggesting that the matter should be referred to the 
 United States agent, in charge of the Indians, for a 
 report as to what would be the best plan to adopt to 
 accomplish the desired object. 
 
 The officers of the association, it is represented, are 
 anxiously waiting for the report of the agent, as they 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 9 
 
 were advised he would be instructed accordingly ; and 
 it is asked if the government will make an appropria- 
 tion in behalf of the proposed mission and school. In 
 reply, I beg leave to remark, there will soon be a new 
 superintendent and agent in charge of the Indians of 
 Arizona, and as I fully approve of the project of the 
 association, I will bear the subject in mind, and require 
 the superintendent and agent to give it prompt atten- 
 tion. I have no doubt but that an arrangement can be 
 made between the department and the association, that 
 will be satisfactory, and result in great benefit to the 
 Indians. But what amount of money the government 
 will appropriate, or what it will agree to perform can 
 eonly be determined upon information, which it is de- 
 sired to have furnished by the Indian agent. When 
 that shall have been received, your association will be 
 duly advised of the conclusion of the department in 
 
 the matter. 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 E. S. PARKER, 
 
 Commissioner. 
 
 When General Alexander was ordered away 
 from Fort McDowell, Col. Geo. B. Sanford, 
 U. S. A., who succeeded him in command of 
 the post, continued to take a deep interest in 
 the welfare of the Pimas and urged the 
 appointment of a teacher upon their agent, 
 Captain Grossman, U. S. A., who wrote the 
 following letter : 
 
lO THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 U. S. Indian Agency, Sacaton, Arizona, 
 July 22, 1870. 
 Mrs. A.J. Alexander, 
 
 Madam : — By advice of Col. Sanford, U. S. A., I 
 take the liberty to address you on behalf of the Pima 
 and Maricopa Indians which have been placed under 
 my charge. The Colonel told me that you had always 
 taken a kindly interest in their spiritual welfare, and he 
 thought it probable that you might be instrumental in 
 sending a missionary to this agency. 
 
 Col. Geo. L. Andrews, U. S. A., superintendent of 
 Indian affairs for this territory, and myself have both 
 been and are still anxious to establish a school on this 
 reservation, believing that by means of it we may in 
 time improve the condition of the interesting Indians, 
 residing thereon. Since my arrival here, I have erected 
 a commodious agency building in a healthy locality, to 
 which I shall remove with my family on the first of 
 next month. In it, a school room has been set apart, 
 but I am still without a teacher, and see no prospect of 
 obtaining the services of one, unless associations in the 
 east will lend a helping hand. 
 
 I am inclined to the belief that efforts to christianize 
 the Pimas will not be strongly opposed by these 
 Indians, but fear that their total indifference to religious 
 matters will be, for a time at least, a serious obstacle. 
 
 A missionary sent here, would have to acquire the 
 Pima language to a certain extent, and ought to have 
 some knowledge of Spanish. The Pima language is 
 simple and easily acquired. I have already compiled a 
 small vocabulary and my interpreter, Louis, who speaks 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. II 
 
 a little English and very fair Spanish, would render 
 every assistance. 
 
 I shall esteem it a favor to hear from you, and sub- 
 scribe myself 
 
 Very respectfully yours, 
 
 F. E. GROSSMAN, 
 
 Captain U. S. Army, 
 U. S. Special Indian Agent, 
 
 The U. S. government made a liberal pro- 
 vision for the erection of buildings at the 
 agency and for the support of teachers. 
 
 Simultaneously with the first efforts put forth 
 by the Ladies' Association, a deep impres- 
 sion was made upon the mind of an earnest 
 christian man in the city of Chicago, 111., then 
 actively engaged there in the city mission. 
 
 His remarkable call to the mission in Ari- 
 zona, is related in the simple narrative, which 
 at our request he has written, together with a 
 brief sketch of the life of his devoted and 
 heroic wife, who may be said to have fallen 
 at her post of duty in the service of her coun- 
 try, as well as of the Master whom it was her 
 delight to serve. 
 
 Rev. Mr. Whittemore, pastor of the church 
 at Florence, Arizona, gave the first impulse to 
 
12 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 / 
 
 this narrative of the Pima mission.* Being a 
 member of the same presbytery with Mr. 
 Cook, he met with him from time to time and 
 on one occasion, when together at Santa Fe, 
 New Mexico, Mr. Coolc recounted to his 
 brother missionary, some of the incidents of 
 his journey from Chicago to Arizona in the 
 latter part of the year 1870. Mr. Whittemore 
 
 *Rev. Isaac T. Whittemore is tlie custodian of the 
 celebrated " Casa Grande ruin," which is thus men- 
 tioned in a notice which emanated from the general 
 land office and bears date, Washington, October 15, 
 1869. " The general land office has received returns 
 of the survey of township and section lines of five town- 
 ships on the Gila river in southern Arizona, contaiiiing 
 105,252 acres of agriculture and grazing lands, bearing 
 evidence of having been formerly under a high state of 
 cultivation for centuries and abounding in ruins of 
 elaborate and sometime magnificent structures, to 
 gether with relics of obliterated races, possessing con- 
 siderable knowledge of the arts and manufactures. 
 ..\niong the most extensive of the ruins being those 
 called Casa Grande, about two miles southeast of the 
 junction of the east and south channels of the Gila 
 river. These townships embrace the growing towns 
 of Adamsville and Florence, of the Fort Yuma and 
 Fort Grant wagon roads, as well as numerous pro- 
 ductive farms and pastures, well stocked with cattle and 
 sheep." 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 13 
 
 being deeply interested in what he had heard 
 of his friend's remarkable experience, urged 
 him to write some account of his life, together 
 with a sketch of his mission work during 
 twenty two years and particularly how he had 
 gained an influence over the people whose 
 welfare he had earnestly sought to promote. 
 This, the modest missionary was reluctant to 
 do, but through the encouragement given by 
 Mr. Whittemore, who spent some time with 
 him at his station at Sacaton, the following 
 brief sketch of his mission work was prepared 
 and is now given to the christian community, 
 in the hope that other tribes of Indians may 
 receive the gospel with all its attendant bless- 
 ings and that men and women will be found 
 consecrated to the work of bringing the light 
 of the gospel to many now "sitting in dark- 
 ness," and " in the region and shadow of 
 death." 
 
 In the correspondence which preceded the 
 publication of the present volume is the fol- 
 lowing reference to Mr. Cook and his mission 
 by Rev. Isaac T. Whittemore, pastor of the 
 church at Florence, Arizona. " When con- 
 templating the publication of a brief history 
 of the Pima mission, I wrote to General O. 
 
14 THE PiMa Indian mission. 
 
 O. Howard, asking a few words in regard to 
 the missionary whose interesting narrative is 
 here introduced, and soon received the fol- 
 lowing letter in reply :" 
 
 Head-quarters Department of the East, 
 Governor's Island, New York, 
 January 5, 1893. 
 Dear Sir : 
 
 Your letter is received. Yes, I became acquainted 
 with Mr. Coolc in 1872, when I was sent by President 
 Grant to Arizona and New Mexico, to settle difficulties 
 arising between tribes of Indians with each other, and 
 with white men, and endeavors to make peace with the 
 only tribe of Apaches (Cochises) then at war. 
 
 At that time Mr. Cook had two schools under his 
 charge, one at the ^'nia agency and the other near a 
 Maricopa village. He had taught the children of 
 these tribes to read an-d speak English fairly well. 
 
 His history was so remarkable that I have often 
 recalled the points of it. 
 
 First, — A soldier, in probably the volunteer service, 
 and on duty in New Mexico, and afterwards in the Army 
 of the Potomac. 
 
 Second. — After being mustered out, a citizen, and 
 then a city missionary in Chicago. 
 
 Third — A remarkable conversion to God, and an im- 
 pression on his mind that he must go as a missionary to 
 the Pimas. 
 
 Fourth. — Fillins; his trunk with a melodeon, and few 
 necessaries, and starting out with insufficient money to 
 reach his destination. 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 15 
 
 Fifth. — Mr. Cook joined a bull-train after leaving 
 the railroad in Kansas, and went on with it as far as 
 Albuquerque, New Mexico. 
 
 Sixth, — Stopping with a train over Sunday near a min- 
 ing camp. Upon making inquiry he was invited to 
 preach in a large saloon, the only available room. He 
 preached a short sermon, reading the scriptures, lead- 
 ing the singing, in which many joined. At the close a 
 man with a tall hat, declared that the service would not 
 be complete without a collection. He passed the tall 
 hat and received— if I remember rightly — some sixteen 
 or seventeen dollars which he gave to Mr. Cook. 
 
 Seventh. — Thus he was enabled to reach his destina- 
 tion with some money in his pocket after a sixteen weeks' 
 journey and preaching tour. He first learned the Pima 
 language and then taught the children as I have said ; 
 they spoke the English with a German accent. 
 
 Eighth. — He acted as my interpreter when I brought 
 a combined delegation of Arizona Indians from that 
 territory to Washington. He helped me in the essen- 
 tial councils and settlements of difficulties in Arizona. 
 
 Ninth. — He corresponded with and visited a beauti- 
 ful German woman, as full of christian zeal as himself. 
 He married her, I think in Chicago, and transported 
 her to Arizona, and there they have done the grand 
 work with which you are acquainted. I believe that 
 his original German name was Koch when translated, is 
 Cook. 
 
 These nine items are substantially as the history of 
 this wonderful young man lies in my mind. I wish all 
 
l6 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 ministers and missionaries were as able, as devoted and 
 
 successful as he has been. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 O. O. HOWARD, 
 Major- General, U. S. Army." 
 
 Mr. Whittemore further writes under date, 
 Florence, Arizona, Ter., 
 May 22, 1893. 
 
 I have been intimately acquainted with Rev. C. H. 
 Cook, the missionary to these Indians for five years, 
 and a more devoted and conscientious man I have 
 never known. 
 
 His "call" from missionary work in Chicago, where 
 he was an intimate friend of D. L. Moody, was provi- 
 dential. As you will see, Gen. Andrew J. Alexander, 
 an officer of the United States Army, who was here on 
 duty in 1868, became interested in the welfare of this 
 tribe and wrote an article that was published in the 
 New York Evangelist, which met the eye of Mr. Cook, 
 and this was the " finger of Providence" that pointed 
 him to this field. He ' ' was not disobedient to the 
 heavenly vision," so, leaving his work there, he came 
 at his own charges and began here. 
 
 It was doubtless in answer to the prayers of those 
 ladies who were looking for the man promised to Chief 
 Antonio by Gen. Alexander, that God chose, in the 
 person of Brother Cook, the expected teacher. He 
 was fitted by nature, education, and grace, for this, his 
 great life-work. His army life of three years or more, 
 prepared him for the rough and isolated position. His 
 patience, coolness, prudence, honesty, perseverance and 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 17 
 
 consecration, have given also a Btness for the work, 
 such as but few men possess. His aim has been, from 
 the first, to christianize parents and children, as the 
 primary step toward civilization and citizenship. 
 
 His efforts have met with remarkable success. He 
 is reaping where he has sown, and the fruit already 
 gathered is but a foreshadowing of what must follow. 
 He loves the Indians and they love him. What he says, 
 they believe. They know him well. He has studied 
 their character and temperament and taught therti by 
 precept and example, to love God. A wonderful change 
 has been wrought in them, externally and internally. 
 The Indian nature has been supplanted by the Divine, 
 and the fighting principle is no longer there. 
 
 The ladies who were the instruments in God's hand of 
 bringing him here, "wrought better than they knew.' 
 If they could have seen these Indians as they were, 
 when Missionary Cook came, over twenty years since, 
 and see them now, packing the chapel each Sabbath, 
 eager listeners to the truth, ' clothed and in their right 
 minds," they would, rejoice and thank God. 
 
 Brother Cook is too modest to tell, or have published, 
 the trials and sacrifices of his work. He desires to 
 give God all the glory, and keep self in the background, 
 while he simply tells us much of his Indians, and very 
 little of himself, or the part he has taken in their eleva- 
 tion. We who have known him long, love him well. 
 If we can induce others to go and do a similar work 
 for other tribes, our purpose in helping to prepare this 
 little volume will be accomplished. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 At the request of the Ladies' Union Mis- 
 sion School Association, Mr. Cook has given 
 the following brief account of his journey to 
 Arizona in 1870 and some important events of 
 his life. 
 
 Sacaton, (Pima Reservation), Arizona, 
 
 March 22, 1893. 
 To the Corresponding Secretary of the Ladies' Union 
 Mission School Association : 
 
 Dear Friend — I will now, in compliance with your 
 request, try to give you some account of the history of 
 my life and pi my coming to this field of labor. 
 
 When but a little child of less than six months of 
 age. I was left both fatherless and motherless. 
 
 " When my father and ray mother forsake me, then 
 the Lord will take me up. " "A father of the fatherless. ' ' 
 How thankful we ought to be for such gracious 
 promises ! 
 
 When barely able to speak, both of my grandmothers 
 would not permit me to go to sleep evenings without 
 praying, that the blood of Christ, God's Son, might 
 cleanse me and keep me from all sin. From that time 
 forward I have seldom neglected to pray to God. 
 
 My father, grandfather, and great grandfather hav- 
 ing been public school teachers in Germany, it was the 
 desire of my grandfather to give me a. good education. 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. I9 
 
 So, when len years of age, I was sent to a first-class 
 city school, high school and'seminary. About the time 
 of my confirmation in the Evangelical Lutheran Church, 
 I felt some of the strivings of the Holy Spirit, also 
 some desire to devote my life to foreign missions. 
 
 But some time after, partly on account of my great 
 esteem for one of my professors, I was led, through 
 his materialistic teachings, to disbelieve the Bible and 
 the Divinity of our Lord and my foolish heart was 
 darkened. 
 
 Emigrating to New Orleans, I worked for some time 
 in a drug store, which has since proved of advantage to 
 me. Being afterwards ill-treated by a German, I con- 
 cluded to go to sea. 
 
 At this time I prayed the Lord earnestly to direct me. 
 This the Lord did in a remarkable way and I found a 
 situation on a ship. The captain, a Massachusetts 
 man, was a noble christian ; he treated me fully as well 
 as though I had been his own son. This good man 
 gave me tracts, invited me to attend the seamen's 
 chapels and paid me more at times, than at first agreed 
 to. But what a perverse heart was mine ! I might have 
 passed for a good Unitarian or a moral materialist, my 
 heart was a stranger to the God to whom I prayed. 
 
 One evening, in the Mediterranean Sea, I fell over- 
 board and the Lord graciously saved me from a watery 
 grave and from dying the death of an unbeliever, but 
 this did not turn me from my wicked unbelief. 
 
 With this captain I spent some very happy 5iears arid 
 gained much in health and strength of body. 
 
 The captain then left off going to sea, for a while ; 
 sailing with the new captain I did not feel at home and 
 
20 , THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 not long after, I shipped without asking Divine direc- 
 tion, with the former second mate, who was then first 
 mate of another ship. 
 
 Here we received the most outrageous treatment and 
 the sailors were plotting to throw the inhuman captain 
 overboard or at least to put him in chains and keep him 
 in continement until we should reach lyiverpool. Our 
 first mate, however, learning of the plot, advised the 
 men to desist, as we were nearing the Irish coast and 
 as it was about the time of the March equinoctial 
 storms. We soon reached St. George's channel and 
 having taken a pilot on board, we learned that our 
 captain had won the race with the captain of the clipper- 
 ship, Titian. Then a terrific storm burst upon us ; our 
 only safety was a small harbor north of. Liverpool, 
 where, after the tide left us, we found ourselves high 
 and dry on the beach. Most of the sailors ran away 
 the first night. The captain promised those of us who 
 would remain, a handsome reward ; we stayed, but the 
 reward did not reach us. 
 
 On our return voyage on another ship, our treatment 
 was better. , Our first mate, the captain's son, often told 
 me how happy he would be if he could only have forty 
 acres of land in the wilderness, a yoke of oxen, and a 
 little cabin and there earn his living. This made a 
 deep and strange impression upon me. He never 
 reached his home alive, and his father had been the 
 cause of his death. This took away from me all ambi- 
 tion of ever becoming the captain and owner of a fine 
 ship. 
 
 The war having broken out, I enlisted in Rochester, 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 2 1 
 
 N. Y. , and while waiting to go to the front, I attended 
 the Presbyterian Brick Church. Dr. Shaw preached 
 on Christ cleansing the lepers, and on the leprosy of 
 heathenism cleansed by Divine power through the 
 instrumentality of missionaries. 
 
 This sermon affected me greatly and after joining 
 the battery, listening to the chaplain and seeing the 
 walk of some christian fellow soldiers, I was led to the 
 Saviour. 
 
 From that time on, my army life, though full of hard- 
 ships and dangers, was a happy one. As a No. i at a 
 gun and shortly after as gunner, I was in many a battle 
 exposed to the fire of the enemy, but I did not receive 
 a scratch. 
 
 At one time, lying on my blankets close to the Jeru- 
 salem plank road near Petersburg, not far from the 
 rebel lines and thinking of the many lives sacrificed, 
 of the many homes made desolate, of the wounded at 
 times lying between the lines, suffering great agonies, 
 the thought came to me, how can it be that the Lord 
 permits all this ? I fell asleep and then thought I could 
 see far above the battle field, two beings, who had 
 power to stop the war at any time and power to pro- 
 tect the life of any single individual. This dream 
 greatly comforted me. and when some time after we 
 ceased shooting at each other on Sundays, and we 
 could hear the voice of prayer and praise, and the 
 preaching of the chaplains on both sides of the line, I 
 then thought that the war would soon end. 
 
 How much ill-feeling it would have saved on both 
 sides if we, like brave General Grant, had only looked 
 at the great war as a national punishment for sin. 
 
22 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 After the war was, over, I thought of settling on a 
 farm in Illinois, but stopped for a while at the home of 
 a comrade in New York state. There being no Pres- 
 byterian Church near, I joined the M. E. Church. 
 One day I accidentally cut my foot. Perhaps some of 
 my neighbors thought, that having come unhurt from 
 the war, vengeance was still following me. 
 
 After five months I was able to walk, though still 
 lame. I found work in a bank in Chicago and was led 
 afterwards into city mission work. I received a good 
 salary ; the Lord prospered my work and the outlook 
 was very promising. 
 
 At one time boarding near where they were excava- 
 ting the Washington street tunnel, I was sick with 
 diphtheria. I had no one to stay with me and so I was 
 alone most of the time. The medicine did not seem to 
 give relief and I was rapidly getting worse. I prayed 
 the Lord if pleasing in his sight that I should die, that 
 He might let me die with some other sickness. But 
 my throat kept getting worse, I could only breathe 
 with great difficulty. I then heard such heavenly music 
 as I never expect to hear again in this world. The 
 room seemed to be full of heavenly beings. ' I con- 
 cluded that I had died and began to fear that I might 
 get well again. After a little I could again feel the 
 pain in my throat but a few days after I got well. (I 
 have since learned that pure fresh air, an outward 
 appliance of sweet oil and croton oil mixed, and a 
 gargle of permangenate of potash is a good treatment 
 for diphtheria). 
 
 I read the life of David Brainard and often thought 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 23 
 
 of him and his Indians. I think it was in 1868 or '69 
 I got hold of a copy of the Mew York Evangelist. I 
 read in it an article from an army officer about the 
 Pima Indians of Arizona, and of their great need of 
 teachers and missionaries. 
 
 At first I did not pay much attention to it and I did 
 not ke p the paper. I was thinking of preparing 
 myself and then to go as missionary to China. But 
 from that time forward, for a year or more, the article 
 which I had read without much thought would still 
 present itself to me. 
 
 When I prayed over the matter, I would always feel 
 more convinced that I ought to go to the Pima Indians. 
 In reading the Bible I was greatly surprised to find so 
 many passages in both Old and New Testament refer- 
 ing to the sending of the gospel to the heathen. 
 
 I saw some of my friends and brethren go away to 
 India and China with their necessary expenditures all 
 provided for and I was glad of it. But the M. E. 
 Church at that time had no money to spare for sending 
 the gospel to the Indians. 
 
 Inquiring at Washington as to the Indian affairs in 
 Arizona, I was informed that things were very un- 
 settled in Arizona and that it would not be safe to go 
 forth on such an enterprise at that time. The thought 
 then came to me that the same Lord who had pro- 
 tected me during the war could also protect me in 
 Arizona, and as to my temporal support, the same God 
 who provided for George Mul'er's orphans must be able 
 to provide for me, as long as I was willing to work. 
 
 On my first journey to Arizona and often since, my 
 army experience has been of great help to me. 
 
24 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 September l, 1870, with a good supply of clothing, 
 tent, blanlfets, a small melodeon, a Winchester rifle, 
 some groceries and a few cooking utensils, I left 
 Chicago. 
 
 Through the kindness of a fellow-laborer of the Epis- 
 copal Church, I received railroad passes to Kansas City 
 where I stopped over Sunday. Attending church, I. 
 unexpectedly met a former Chicago friend, who kindly 
 invited me to his house, and who on Monday procured 
 me a pass to Kit Carson, so that instead of being out 
 about $6.00 for keeping the Sabbath, I- gained some 
 $15.00 or more. As we moved further west, towns 
 became few and far between. On some part of the 
 railroad, troops were stationed to protect the road and 
 stations against hostile Indians. At some places we 
 could see buffaloes from the car vsjindows. 
 
 Kit Carson, Kansas, my terminus on the railroad, 
 looked like a very hard place, yet near by we beheld a 
 small church and school hoase, showing how quickly 
 these railroads help to move forward christian civiliza- 
 tion. 
 
 Upon inquiry I was told that a mule train had left a 
 little before for Prescott, Arizona. So I took the stage, 
 fare $16.00 or 25 cents per mile, to Bent's Fort, or trad- 
 ing place. During the night we saw a rainbow by moon- 
 light. 
 
 At the stage station I waited several days. The Pres. 
 cott train arrived on Sunday, but some lady passengers 
 objected to having a preacher travel with them. 
 
 Mr. Price, the kind station keeper learning of my 
 errand, instead of charging me $15.00, the usual price, 
 was well satisfied with a few sermons instead. It also 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 25 
 
 pleased him to join in singing some of the old familiar 
 hymns, which he had not heard for years. 
 
 Monday evening a Mexican ox train came along ; 
 the train was not heavy loaded, and the wagon-master 
 was willing to take me to Santa Fe, N. M., at a reason- 
 able rate. No one of the Mexicans could talk English, 
 so I made good progress in the Spanish language. 
 
 We made good time with the ox train, traveling by 
 day and by night. We soon overtook the Prescott 
 train. The only difficulty which I encountered was 
 that the Mexicans, like most whites out here, would 
 travel on Sundays. 
 
 On our first Sunday evening, a Mexican robber came 
 into camp. He eyed my Winchester rifle so sharply 
 that the wagon-master noticed it and cautioned me. 
 The next day, late in the evening he offered to help 
 bring in the oxen for the night journey. He then 
 imitated the howl of a prairie wolf to perfection, then 
 stole the wagon-master's mule and pony and decamped. 
 All of this undoubtedly would not have happened, had 
 we not traveled on Sunday. 
 
 Traveling on the next Sunday and camping in the 
 mountains near Los Vegas, an ox was stolen and after 
 the following day we had to wait three days for the 
 wagon-master's brother, who was to take the train to 
 Santa Fe. 
 
 Saturday, Oct. i. — Just one month from Chicagor 
 We encamped about fifty miles from Santa Fe. I con- 
 cluded to take a little clothing and rifle and to walk on 
 ahead of the train, until the stage should overtake me, 
 and then if there was room, 1 would go on with it to 
 the town. When the stage came up to me, I secured 
 
26 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 passage and thus reached Santa Fe, Saturday evening. 
 Rev. Dr. and Mrs. McFarland gave me a warm wel- 
 come. I preached for the good brother morning and 
 evening, the chapel being full each time. They also 
 had a large Sunday school. Here I learned that a good 
 Presbyterian sister was already employed by the church, 
 to labor among New Me.xico's Indians. The thought 
 came to me, if a defenceless woman can live and labor 
 among the savages, there ought to be hope for a man 
 who had seen war. 
 
 Tuesday afternoon, Oct. 4. — Feeling much refreshed 
 and after Mrs. McFarland had supplied me with a good 
 three days' lunch, I left Santa Fe with another ox train 
 for Albuquerque, where we arrived Friday, Oct. 7, and 
 where I had to stay until Nov. 5. But this gave me 
 an opportunity to preach the gospel and to do other 
 kinds of missionary work. 
 
 During one Sunday a Union soldier traveling with a 
 mule train on that day, had fallen from the wagon and 
 was killed. The government agent requested me to 
 assist him in giving the departed a decent burial. This 
 we did, with a number of whites and Mexicans attend- 
 ing. 
 
 At Albuquerque, being now not far from the haunts 
 of the Apaches, my purse got so low that I had to 
 part with my Winchester rifle. 
 
 The kind postmaster, Mr. Herner, a German Catho- 
 lic, of whom I rented a room, did not want to see me 
 cook my own nieals, so he only charged me $15.00 for 
 four weeks' board, instead of $10.00 a week, the usual 
 rate at that time. 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 27 
 
 Nov. 4, a large number of recruits arrived for the 
 regular army, in charge of four young officers, with one 
 officer's wife. They represented different church 
 denominations, the officer in charge being a Methodist. 
 
 All were glad to have me travel with them and 
 insisted on my sharing their mess. This I did with 
 some misgivings, having doubts as to whether my purse 
 could stand the strain. This, however,' subsequently 
 proved to be so light that I did not feel it at all. Here 
 I had opportunities to preach to the soldiers evenings. 
 Camping some four miles from Escondida, I started 
 out early one morning on an errand, and with some 
 books from an Albuquerque friend, to the house of a 
 Mr. Baca, who had been advised of my coming. He 
 could not talk English but, greeted me in polite Spanish, 
 " How do you do, my brother ? " He then introduced 
 me to his excellent wife and grown up children, and 
 soon we sat down to a good breakfast. I could see 
 at once that the brother was an educated and polished 
 gentleman as well as a noble christian. I asked him 
 how long he had been a Protestant ; he told me that he 
 had been such since boyhood in the city of Mexico. 
 The brother urged me to stop and stay with him : 
 gladly would I have done so. After promising him to 
 do all I could toward having a preacher sent to him 
 and his neighborhood, I bade him and his family 
 good-bye. 
 
 Thursday, Nov. 10, we arrived at Fort Craig ; Major 
 Coleman commanding, I pitched my tent outside with 
 the recruits. But the major although a Catholic, soon 
 came to me and insisted that I should be his guest 
 during my stay at the fort. 
 
28 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 On the following Sunday, I had the privilege of 
 preaching to the infantry companies in the forenoon, 
 and to the cavalry in the evening, the major as well as 
 the other officers and their wives, attending both 
 meetings. 
 
 Some of the officers and recruits stopped at that 
 place. 
 
 Tuesday rao'rning, a few hours before starting again, 
 three Mexican brethren from Peralto had come some 
 seventy miles or more, requesting me earnestly to go 
 back with them and be their preacher. With a nearly 
 empty purse and with about 6oo miles before me, this 
 was a temptation to me. I told them that I was on my 
 way to the Indians, but that it would not be long until 
 they could have a Protestant preacher. They then 
 requested me to accept some nice apples, (nearly a half 
 bushel,) this I did, and then bade them God speed. 
 
 At Fort McRae we were kindly received by Captain 
 Shorkley and others. Saturday, November igth, we 
 arrived at Fort Sheldon. Captain Fachet kindly enter- 
 tained me. Being a Frenchman and a Catholic, he 
 was afraid that the soldiers were too rough for Sunday 
 services. However, he attended three meetings and 
 was agreeably surprised at the good behavior of his 
 soldiers. 
 
 November 23 we arrived at Fort Cummings ; here 
 Captain Hedberg, a German, took care of me. Here 
 I bought some groceries and the post-surgeon kindly 
 gave me a little medicine, some bacon and tea. Cash 
 on hand, 25 cents, with about 400 miles of road still 
 ahead of me ; this made me feel a little blue and I was 
 thinking of Christ feeding the five thousand. 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 29 
 
 Arrived at the town of Mimbers, (not very far from 
 the present Deming,) November 24. Here I had to 
 bid farewell to my kind army friends. As I had plenty 
 of good clothing, they probably thought that my purse 
 yet contained several hundreds of dollars. 
 
 Having a message to a Jewish firm from Albu- 
 querque, they kindly invited me to make my home with 
 them. After preaching in the evening, I received sev- 
 eral invitations by good sisters to stay at their homes, 
 or at least to come and eat with them on the next day. 
 Providentially on the next day, a Mexican ox train was 
 ready to start for Fort Bowie. The kind wagon- 
 master, though heavy loaded, was willing to take my 
 baggage free. I persuaded him to keep my watch 
 chain until redeemed. I walked nearly all the time, 
 from twenty to thirty miles a day ; this, however, made 
 me lame on the foot which I had cut. Stopping over 
 one day not far from a large mining camp, I visited it. 
 Upon inquiry I was told that the men would like to 
 have me preach to them in the evening. It being a 
 little cold they had transformed a large saloon into a 
 chapel, all the bottles, etc., having disappeared behind 
 the counter. The place was crowded, the singing 
 demonstrated that many of the miners had been at 
 church before. At the close, one of the men took his 
 hat and said that the service was not complete without 
 a collection. I was thus en.ibled to pay the freighter 
 well and still have $6.40 on hand. 
 
 Arrived at Fort Bowie, Sunday, December 5, at 
 8 A. M. Here I met Captain Russell. I had once 
 fought side by side with this brave officer, before he 
 
30 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 was promoted. He was an Irish Catholic, the son of 
 a pious mother, whose prayers, I have no doubt, fol- 
 lowed her son all his life. The captain was very glad 
 to see me and glad to have me share his quarters and 
 table for some twelve days. He would accompany me 
 Sundays and other evenings, preaching to the soldiers 
 and in all devotional exercises. At times he would tell 
 me of his exploits and often narrow escapes from that 
 great warrior, " Cochise," and I would tell him of my 
 exploits as city missionary at Chicago, how at times 
 some of his zealous country women would try and drive 
 me away with a broomstick, or poker, while others 
 would invite me to dinner and at times to have prayers 
 with them. 
 
 Dec. 17, I had an opportunity to travel to Tucson. 
 Capt. Russell not only supplied me with all necessary 
 rations, but also handed me $10, telling me to take it, as 
 I might need it. I have since had the pleasure of 
 meeting the captain at this place. 
 
 On our way to Tucson, we were overtaken by a great 
 snowstorm. When within twenty miles of Tucson, we 
 picked up two wounded Mexican teamsters , they had 
 been wounded and one of their number killed on Sun- 
 day forenoon, and their oxen had been driven off by 
 Cochise's warriors, all of which, likely, would not have 
 happened, had they not traveled on Sunday. 
 
 Friday, Dec. 23, 1870, I arrived at Pima Agency, 
 with nearly as much cash on hand as I had when I left 
 Albuquerque. Capt. Grossman, a German and an army 
 officer, was the agent. He and his noble christian 
 wife gave ms ^ hearty welcome. The age]^! took me 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 3 1 
 
 over the reservation, and on Jan 1, 1871, I received an 
 appointment as goverment teacher. 
 
 My health was excellent, and the journey, especially 
 that part of it when I had little or no means of my own, 
 through the wild Apache country, had benefited me 
 greatly. 
 
 During the time since I had left the railroad, I had 
 preached twenty-two times, I had given many other 
 addresses, and had many conversations with individuals 
 on the subject of religion, so that the scanty provision 
 for my long journey and my frequent straits turned out 
 " rather to the furtherance of the gospel." It was not 
 until several months after I reached the agency at 
 Sacatou that I learned that there were others beside 
 myself, who were anxious to have the gospel and chris- 
 tian civilization brought to a people, who are perishing 
 for want of it. You had been trying for two years, to 
 find somebody to go to these Indians, while I had been 
 trying for that length of time to find an opportunity 
 to go. 
 
 On receiving the circular, referring to a mission to 
 the Pima Indians — I read it wit'i the deepest interest 
 and felt like saying the Lord bless our sisters in their 
 noble work and may none of us grow weary in well- 
 doing, knowing that the promise is sure. " In due 
 time ye shall reap, if ye faint not." 
 
 Twenty-five years after the interview be- 
 tween General Alexander and the Chief of the 
 Pimas, Antonio Azul, [to which reference has 
 been made,] and to whom the general gave 
 
32 
 
 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 his prcjmise that teachers should be sent to 
 his people, Mr. Cook received a visit from 
 the now aged chief, of which he writes as 
 follows : 
 
 Sacaton, Ariz., March 29, 1893. 
 
 Antonio Azul, (or " Koe Wadtlilc," Chief of the 
 Pimas and Maricopas,) has just paid me a visit. He is 
 probably about seventy-five years of age. He still 
 works his own farm, with some grandchildren assisting 
 him. Among other things, I asked him " if he remem- 
 bered an army officer by the name of General Alex- 
 ander ?" This question seemed to have a wonderful 
 effect upon him and at once seemed to bring before him 
 vividly, the scenes of the past. He gave me quite a 
 piece of history, of those early days in Arizona. Among 
 other things, he told me something like this : I remem- 
 ber the general very well ; I remember his long beard ; 
 he was a very, vely good man. (Se, se, aw-aw-tam). I 
 was with him on two campaigns in the mountain region, 
 back of Fort McDowell. In the first scout, after trav- 
 eling mostly nights, over very difficult trails and steep 
 mountains and mountain sides. We came upon a camp 
 of Apaches, engaged in a drunken feast. The Apache 
 lookout saw us, but not in time to prevent our attack 
 upon them, which resulted in the loss to them of nine 
 of their number, including their chief warrior. 
 
 In our second expedition we were also successful and 
 the Apaches lost seven of their ban(J, besides some 
 who were taken prisoners. I captured a bright looking 
 boy, some twelve years of age. 
 
 The general then requested me to take good care of 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 33 
 
 • 
 
 the captive ; not to sell him into slavery in Sonora, 
 Mexico, but to treat him as one of the family, to teach 
 him to vfork and how to earn a living without stealing 
 and murdering people as the Apaches were doing ; and 
 above all to see to it that none of the Pimas would harm 
 him. I promised the general I would do so. 
 
 Some time after this, a large herd of Texas cattle 
 passed through our country on the way to California. 
 Many of our people, being hungry, stole some fifty 
 head of them. 
 
 General Alexander, with a small company of cavalry, 
 came here to look into this matter. Kiho Chimkum, 
 one of our war-chiefs, in a council, advised the Indians 
 that as they were unable to pay for the cattle, they had 
 better arm at once, and fight the N. Y. troops. 
 
 He soon had some three hundred warriors ready, 
 armed and painted for war, with the thirty or forty sol- 
 diers of the general. After a few days of delay and 
 plenty of good advice from the general, who told them 
 that the U. S. Government only sought the welfare of 
 the Indians, and not their destruction and my telling 
 them the same, our people were persuaded to desist. 
 
 Those of us who had been with General Alexander, 
 fully believed that whatever he would advise us, would 
 be for our good. After this, all our people thought even 
 more of the general, than before, and as his name was 
 rather difficult for most of us to remember and to pro- 
 nounce, we called him Chue-wa-oespo (long beard). 
 
 Antonio gave me a detailed account of all the inci- 
 dents in the war with the Apaches. He, as well as 
 many others of his tribe, has lost many relatives, killed 
 
34 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 • 
 by them. I need not remind you of the influence for 
 good or evil, military men, as well as civil o£&cers and 
 employes of government often exert upon the Indians, 
 a matter too often lost sight of. When I kept school 
 here, Antonio, who kept his promise concerning; the 
 captive, sent him here to attend school. Louista, the 
 Apache, was one of my best scholars ; a very faithful 
 worker and perfectly honest and reliable. He mar- 
 ried a Pima girl and lived happily with her and it was 
 a great grief to him, as well as to Ijis young wife, 
 when her father took her away from Louista and gave 
 her to a wicked trader for pay. Louista, for a long 
 time, felt very badly about this, as also did his young 
 wife, and after General Howard's treaty of peace 
 between the Apaches and Pimas, he went to the San 
 Carlos Reservation where he married an Apache 
 woman. His children are now attending a government 
 school and Antonio told me, that Louista, his former 
 slave, has since his going to the San Carlos Reserva- 
 tion, prevented by his wise counsel, an outbreak of 
 the San Carlos Apaches. 
 
 I once had hopes of seeing Louista become a mission- 
 ary to his people. Perhaps, in his present relations to 
 his tribe, he may be to them now, a true missionary, a 
 messenger of peace and a promoter of " good- will to 
 men." He has doubtless accomplished for the welfare 
 of his people far more than we are now aware of, and 
 all with the blessing of God, through the few kind 
 words spoken in his behalf, by General Alexander. 
 Respectfully, 
 
 CHARLES H. COOK. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 Mrs. Cook's Missionary Life. 
 
 Mrs. Chas. H. Cook was born at Berlin, 
 Germany, June, 185.1.. Her maiden name was 
 Anna M. Bath. Her mother was a faithful 
 and sincere christian. She had been disin- 
 herited for marrying a Protestant, as she was 
 brought up in the Roman Catholic church. 
 The parents of Miss Bath, desirous of giving 
 her a good education, sent her to the Ursuline 
 Convent, one of the best schools in Berlin. 
 Here she studied the common German 
 branches and the French and English lan- 
 guages. She also learned to do all kinds of 
 needle and fancy work. 
 
 After emigrating to America, the family, 
 except the mother, united with the German 
 M. E. Church, irj Chicago, 111. In July, 1872, 
 Miss Bath became my wife and since that 
 time, with the exception of three visits to her 
 parents, her home was with the Pima Indians 
 of Arizona. 
 
 In those early days, travel out here was 
 very expensive, and often tiresome. We took 
 a train from' Chicago to San Francisco, thence 
 
38 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 was lost,, but the passengers were safe After 
 waiting nearly four weeks, during which time 
 I had ample opportunity to preach the gospel 
 in Yuma, and at the Military Post, one even- 
 ing, the river-boat arrived, to our great joy, 
 bringing the passengers safely. The long 
 sea-voyage and delay in the harbor of La Paz 
 had greatly benefited the health of my wife 
 and baby, for which we had been praying. 
 One of the passengers on board, a good old 
 Irish lady, greatly enjoyed telling me the next 
 morning of the disaster at sea. The captain 
 had kindly given my wife and a few others, 
 each a state room on deck. Nearing La Paz 
 late one evening, the steamer had struck a 
 rock, which had caused a leak. The captain 
 told my wife that there was nothing serious, 
 so she retired and slept quietly until morning. 
 The cabin passengers below, had sat up all 
 night with life-preservers on ; men, women 
 and children, for eight long hours, awaiting 
 the summons to get into the boats. At 
 LaPaz, the leak was stopped, but the next 
 incoming steamer brought the passengers to 
 the river. 
 
 At another time, when earning our bread 
 by trading for a Mr. Hayden — a gentleman 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 39 
 
 well known in Arizona, and who paid us well 
 for our services — for two years we lived in a 
 very lonely, deserted place, about ten miles 
 from the agency. Here we slept under a 
 tent. A large number of coyotes (prairie 
 wolves) sounded the reveille at day- break or 
 gave us a nocturnal concert. After opening 
 the store, a large number of Indians, well 
 armed, threatened to tie me to a tree and use 
 me as a target for the wild young Indians, if 
 I would not, within twenty four hours, con- 
 cede to some of their unreasonable demands. 
 Their object was to frighten us and make us 
 leave. But we stood our ground, without 
 even a revolver, trusting in the Lord. After 
 a few more threats, the next day, they kindly 
 informed me that I might preach to them, 
 but should not trade. I replied that I would 
 comply with their request if they would pay 
 us enough so that we could live. This put a 
 new phase on the subject, and soon after, we 
 were kept busy fron day-break until after 
 dark, taking in often from 30,000 to 45,000 
 pounds of wheat, daily. Shortly after this, 
 the Indians came on Sundays and asked me 
 to preach to them. Courage inspired confi- 
 dence. Mrs. Cook never manifested fear, 
 
40 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 but was cheerful and happy. But we can 
 sympathize with the wives of many of our 
 home missionaries far away from relatives 
 and church privileges in their isolated desert 
 or mountain homes, and with many unmarried 
 women, our Presbyterian sisters,at work teach- 
 ing Mexicans or Mormons, in these western 
 wilds. 
 
 A German brother and sister, who have 
 nobly raised a large family of boys and girls, 
 offered to take care of my children. One of 
 my girls has since that time voluntarily made 
 her home with them in Iowa, and enjoys it 
 exceedingly. 
 
 During the first nine years of our married 
 life, we drew no salary from any missionary 
 society. All our wants were supplied and 
 sometimes we had abundance. By close 
 economy, we saved $800, which we invested 
 in land in Iowa, while it was cheap. It is now 
 near a town and railroad, and this, with a few 
 more buildings, will make a home for the 
 children. 
 
 Twice, we were driven away from here by 
 wicked agents, but they could not drive away 
 Mrs. Cooks' courage ; which, at such times, 
 was a great reliance to me. 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 41 
 
 We often had no physician within many- 
 miles. At one time, hundreds of Indians had 
 the small-pox. An old Papago squaw, full of 
 it, seeing our door open, came into my wife's 
 room and asked her for a dress. She gave it, 
 but bade her not enter again until she had 
 fully recovered. 
 
 In housekeeping here, in those early days, 
 we encountered two serious difficulties. We 
 could send to New York or Chicago for dry 
 goods and clothing and have them sent by 
 mail or express ; not so with groceries. 
 
 Our first cooking-stove, a No. 7, cost $86. 
 Sugar was 50 cts. per lb.; canned goods, 75 
 cts. to $1 ; coffee, 75 cts.; potatoes from 10 
 to 20 cts. per lb.; flour, 7 to 12 cts.; butter, 
 f I to $1.25 per lb., etc. And the keeping of 
 one horse cost me nearly $100 a year. We 
 kept a few fowls, but gardening was useless, 
 from lack of water. We now have the rail- 
 road within fifteen miles, and the country is 
 settling up in some places and prices though 
 still high, are not exorbitant. 
 
 Another serious difi&culty that we encoun- 
 tered was poor shelter, especially in rainy 
 weather. 
 
 I will enclose an article from the pen of 
 
42 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 Mrs. A. M. Darley, who with her husband has 
 been long at work in Colorado, at present in 
 Pueblo, where they publish the Brotherhood, 
 in Spanish and English, occasionally. Their 
 experience matched ours exactly. 
 
 Before the railroad came, the freight on 
 lumber was 15 cts. a pound ! Nearly all the 
 houses in New Mexico and Arizona were then 
 built with adobes — mud walls, roof and floor- 
 The roof was covered with brush and a layer 
 of horse manure, mud and ashes. Several 
 times we had to put up tents inside the rooms 
 to keep the water off the furniture and beds. 
 While trading, we built a large house in the 
 above manner. A brother, Mr. Irving of the 
 M. E. Church, south at Phoenix, whom I had 
 met once at a camp meeting, very kindly sent 
 me $125, and a Bro. Baldwin of Middletown, 
 Conn., sent money and very encouraging let- 
 ters. I have never seen him, but hope to 
 meet him in heaven. 
 
 It was our aim then, to make this mission 
 self-supporting. 
 
 Dr. Sheldon Jackson, who had once before 
 passed this way exploring in the interest of 
 home missions called and paid us a visit. 
 Mrs. Jackson, at this time accompanied him. 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 43 
 
 This good sister afterwards had a long ride 
 on an engine, instead of the sleeping car and 
 when, crossing the Rio Grande, there was 
 danger that all would go down in the flood, 
 some brave Pima and Papago boys jumped 
 into the river and carried her safely over. 
 Dr. Jackson saw how I had to work six days 
 in the week and could not do the necessary 
 work on Sunday, and suggested the need of a 
 better dwelling ; but the railroad was not yet 
 near enough to bring lumber at prices within 
 reach, so as we had ample room and did not 
 wish to burden the church board with the 
 expense of a shingle roof, it was postponed. 
 
 But alas ! here was our mistake, for it cost 
 me the loss of my dear wife ! Some years 
 later we had a long rainy spell and one of 
 our boys, about eight years old, who had not 
 seen a sick day from the time he was born, 
 sickened and died. He trusted in the Saviour, 
 whom he had learned to love and obey. Two 
 daughters and myself were also sick, but 
 recovered. 
 
 In May, 1889, the new Presbytery of Ari- 
 zona very kindly elected me as commissioner 
 to the general assembly in New York city. I 
 requested my wife to go with me to Iowa, 
 
44 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 and I would come for her and the children 
 later, feeling assured that she needed rest. 
 But our good mother had quietly fallen 
 asleep without any previous illness, in her 7 2d 
 year, some time before. On this account, 
 my wife said she would not feel at home in 
 Iowa without me, and would rather wait 
 another year. Her parents and brother had 
 removed from Chicago to Iowa in 1878. In 
 the early winter of 1889, we had a long spell 
 of rainy weather and the house leaked badly. 
 As a result two of our children were sick, but 
 recovered. My wife became sick, but did 
 not seem very ill. I had bought a sewing 
 machine and brought it home, and she 
 remarked that it ought to be a means of help- 
 ing her over her sickness. But the rain 
 increased and so did her fever. The agency 
 physician treated her disease, but for six days 
 she ate nothing. The fever then left her, 
 her appetite returned, but her strength rap- 
 idly failed, and late in the evening of Decem- 
 ber 18, 1889, she breathed her last, leaving a 
 husband and seven children to mourn her 
 loss. The baby had been weaned about a 
 month before her departure. She thus laid 
 down her work when it seemed to us and to 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 45 
 
 the Indians, who loved and respected her, 
 that she was most needed. 
 
 Our eldest daughter, then but little over 
 fourteen years of age has since that time 
 done her best to fill the place made vacant by 
 her mother's death. 
 
 We have now, thanks to our Home Board 
 and a gift from Gen. Townsend, a good par- 
 sonage and we hope the time will soon come 
 when all our home missionaries and workers 
 in the vineyard of the Lord, in this vast west- 
 ern country, will have a good roof on their 
 dwellings." 
 
 In the experience of our devoted mission- 
 aries we have been reminded of the " Mis- 
 sionary Poem," which deeply affected our 
 hearts, when sent to us by a friend interested 
 in the cause of missions and who sympathized 
 in the trials and sorrows of the missionary's 
 wife. 
 
 " ' Mine own !' he said and clasped her hand 
 
 Her faithful hand within his own, 
 ' I cannot bear this weary land 
 
 This labor all in vain. » » * * 
 
 Come, we'll return ; the hind refrains to sow 
 
 Where nothing springs to reap ; 
 
 We will return to blither plains 
 
 Of corn and trees and sheep ; 
 
46 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 For mine own fatherland I sigh, 
 
 If but to breathe its air and die.' 
 
 So, while he mourned — a sudden change 
 
 Crimsoned her cheek and fired her eye ; 
 
 In boldness, to herself most strange 
 
 Spoke out in her reply : 
 
 ' Cheer thee, my faithful ! Keep thy trust 
 
 In one above, the just— the wise ; 
 
 Who, though He knows us, frail as dust. 
 
 Our faith and courage tries. 
 
 Our friends are far — but God is near. 
 
 Aye, to this land of gloom and fear ! 
 
 I too, have wrestled with despair 
 
 And weeping, yearned to live and die 
 
 Within some christian dwelling fair 
 
 Of my sweet Germany ! 
 
 But it hath passed and I am strong ; 
 
 The Lord, who sent us here to toil 
 
 Can build the shrine and wake the song 
 
 On this unthankful soil ; 
 
 And bow the heathen heart of stone 
 
 To worship at His lofty throne.' 
 ******* 
 
 She spoke with such a beaming eye. 
 
 And such a mild benignant brow, 
 
 As angels, coming from on high 
 
 To comfort earth below. 
 
 Her sweet words fell like heavenly dew, 
 
 Upon the pastor's heart of care. 
 
 And side by side, to God anew. 
 
 They bowed themselves in prayer : 
 
 More sweet to see 
 
 Were none that night in Germany." 
 
A Pima Village, 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 Mr. Cook's Account of the Visit He Received 
 FROM Rev. Sheldon Jackson, D. D. 
 
 It was in the seventies when we first Jiad 
 the pleasure of meeting Rev. Sheldon Jack- 
 son, D. D. He was making the rounds of 
 his great parish, bounded at that time, I be- 
 lieve, by Nebraska, Kansas and the Indian 
 Territory on the east, and California on the 
 west. And what a great parish that was ; 
 greater in extent and in many places, no doubt, 
 more difficult to travel through than the old 
 parish of Brother Paul. 
 
 Here were the oldest settlers in the United 
 States, speaking many different languages, 
 some of them hard to be understood. Some 
 of these tribes made travel through their 
 countries anything but safe. 
 
 Here were also the Mexicans and Mormons, 
 miners and prospectors and a grand army from 
 the east, marching as it were, ahead of the 
 advancing railroads, to occupy the great 
 Rocky Mountain region. 
 
 Here not far from the great Pike's Peak, 
 our brother with his wife and children, set 
 
48 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 up the banner of the cross. From thence 
 they sent forth the Rocky Mountain Presby- 
 terian, and often while the good sister held 
 the fort at home, the brother was absent, 
 exploring the country and preaching the gos- 
 pel! Not in a Pullman palace car, however, 
 but mostly in some frontier stage-coach or on 
 horse-back, or on foot over mountains and 
 valleys, or through deserts, or the snows of 
 the rookies, or in the burning sands of some 
 desert. 
 
 It was on one such journey that the brother 
 stopped at a little stage station a mile east of 
 the Pima Agency. 
 
 After resting a little he paid us a visit, which 
 resulted in a friendly chat on Indian matters 
 and a prayer-meeting Never shall I forget 
 that visit ; it reminded me of a General visit- 
 ing the soldier on picket, and encouraging 
 him in the faithful discharge of his duty. 
 
 Some time after, Dr. Jackson when in New 
 York, urged the brethren of the M. E. Mis- 
 sionary Society to establish a mission among 
 the Pima and Papago Indians of Arizona. 
 Finding that the M. E. Church was not pre- 
 pared and unable to occupy this field, he con- 
 cluded that the Presbyterian Church ought 
 to do something for these 8,000 Indians. 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 49 
 
 In the winter of 1880-1881, Dr. Jackson 
 again visitefl this field in company with Mrs. 
 Jaclcson. The good sister stayed here while 
 the brother explored the surrounding region. 
 
 We were at that time trading for the Hon. 
 C. T. Hayden of Tempe, Arizona, who paid 
 us a good salary ; but we were only able to 
 give our Sundays to the preaching of the gos- 
 pel to the Indians. 
 
 We requested Dr. Jackson to send us a 
 good young missionary, one willing to devote 
 his life to the work. 
 
 On the other hand, the brother having pre- 
 viously informed himself as to our standing 
 in the M. E. Church and as to our orthodoxy, 
 felt persuaded that it was our duty to join 
 his church and so become their missionary 
 for these Indians. 
 
 We felt a little loth to part company with 
 very many M. E. Church brethren whom we 
 loved and highly esteemed ; we also remem- 
 bered that we owed our conversion under 
 God to good Dr. Shaw, a Presbyterian, and 
 believing it to be the Lord's will, we con- 
 cluded to brave any criticism or odium which 
 such change might produce. 
 
50 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 We found a warm welcome in the Presby- 
 terian Church, which in reaUty had been the 
 church of our first choice. > 
 
 We hope, and have good reason to believe, 
 that if Dr. Jackson will pay us a third visit, 
 he will find the Pima Presbyterian Church 
 the strongest church numerically, at least, in 
 Arizona. 
 
 There have been and still are many great 
 and good men at work in this great Rocky 
 Mountain region, but we sincerely believe that 
 Dr. Jackson has done more for the Whites, 
 Mexicans, Mormons and Indians, than any 
 other man. 
 

 The Giant Cactus of Arizona. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Pima Indians, their Manners and Customs, 
 BY Rev. Isaac T. Whittemore. 
 
 Many years ago, tradition gives it 350, the 
 Pimas, Papagoes, Qua-had tks, Jofe-qua-atams 
 (Rabbit-eaters) and other branches, all des- 
 ignated by the common Indian name, Aw-aw- 
 tam, came here from the east, driving away 
 the inhabitants, supposed to have been the 
 Zunis' or Moquis', and took possession of 
 the country. The Pimas then were very 
 numerous and occupied all the country, in- 
 cluding the present Sacaton reservation and 
 the Salt river valley, where Phcenix, the capi- 
 tal, temple and other places are now. For 
 some reason, a part of the tribe, since called 
 Towana-aw-aw-tem (Papagoes) settled on the 
 desert of southwestern Arizona ; only the 
 Pima's remained in the Gila valley. 
 
 The Papagoes hunted the mountain sheep 
 and deer, and lived where they could raise 
 crops when the spring or summer rains were 
 difficult for that purpose. 
 
 Why they left is unknown, probably be- 
 cause a branch of the Apaches who were 
 
52 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 war-like, lived just across the Gila, on the 
 north. Only the Pimas remain in the Gila 
 valley. A little over loo years ago, nearly 
 all the Pima Indians, numbering about 4,006, 
 resided within a radius of about seven miles 
 of what is now called Casa-Blanca, (white 
 house), twenty five miles west of the Ruin of 
 Casa-Grande, in seven villages, or eleven 
 miles west of the agency.- Here they raised 
 cotton, corn, melons and pumpkins and a 
 small round seed which they ground and 
 boiled as mush. 
 
 Their mill was a stone twenty inches long, 
 one foot wide, hollowed out a little, and an 
 upper stone, ten or twelve inches long, weigh- 
 ing fifteen or twenty pounds. The squaws 
 did all the grinding by rubbing the upper 
 stone on the seed in the hollow of " the 
 nether mill-stone." The cotton was raised 
 by the Pimas, spun and woven into cloth of 
 various widths, and also into rude blankets. 
 This cloth, aside from what they wore, was 
 their "stock in trade," with the Colorado 
 Indians, 200 miles west, and afterwards with 
 the Mexicans, on the south. It was usually 
 spun and woven by certain men of the tribe. 
 As they had small canals for inig. ation, their 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 53 
 
 fjelds were small, averaging not more than an 
 acre, or one and a half to the family. They 
 were still under the shadow of the " stone 
 age." They had neither horses nor cattle, 
 nor any implements of iron. Their tools 
 were simply stone axes, and a few articles of 
 wood, dressed by those axes and the fire. 
 From the Mexicans, afterwards, they traded 
 their cloth for axes, adzes, and a small brush- 
 hook, which they used instead of a spade. 
 These were all made in the most primitive 
 manner, and contained little, or no steel. 
 
 They had no pails or vessels of wood, but 
 were not slow to invent. They therefore took 
 willows, which grow in abundance along the 
 river, and a weed, and stripped the bark, then 
 very adroitly split these with their teeth, and 
 wove these so closely together as to hold 
 water. This they accomplished by means of 
 needles or thorns of the cactus, of which 
 there are over one hundred varieties in this 
 territory. 
 
 They used these baskets while digging 
 small ditches, the women filling them with 
 earth and carrying them up the bank. The 
 grain, or seed, was planted in rows ; a hole 
 was made in the ground with a stick, and 
 
54 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 covered with the foot, just as did the Egyp- 
 tians many thousand years ago. 
 
 The principal article of food, was the bean 
 of the mesquite, which still grows abundantly 
 all over the desert. They grow in a pod, 
 somewhat like the "carob," the husks, out of 
 which the prodigal son tried so hard, but in 
 vain, to get a little nourishment. The day 
 that ushered in the gathering of these beans 
 was a happy event. 
 
 Large parties started out leaving the aged 
 and the little ones at home, taking with them 
 large jars made of clay, or gourds, filled with 
 water,the women carrying them on their heads. 
 
 These " Kihos " they fill with the beans, 
 which they gather, storing it here and there, 
 and covering with thorn-brush in such a way 
 that the prairie-wolves or coyotes could not 
 steal it until they could bring it home as 
 needed. These beans were not ground but 
 pounded, in a mortar made from a piece of 
 mesquite tree, which is very hard by burning 
 a hole in it and then inserting it in the ground. 
 The stone pestle was i6 or i8 inches long, and 
 weighed often 20 pounds. With this the 
 women crushed the beans very fine, then sep- 
 arated the seeds, which are indigestible ; and 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 55 
 
 from the remaining pulp, they made large 
 cakes, containing saccharine matter that re- 
 mained sweet a year. They boiled them and 
 with the syrup, made a dumpling. Another 
 article of food was the fruit of the " Suhuarro," 
 or giant cactus. It grows plentifully, still, in 
 patches on the desert and far up on the moun- 
 tains, attaining a height of 20 to 30 or more 
 feet The fruit grows -on the top and is gath- 
 ered dexterously by the Indians with poles — 
 a small hook of wood fastened on the head, to 
 bring it to the ground. Part of this fruit they 
 ate when ripe, and the rest they dried in the 
 sun, or boiled down to a jam, and stored away 
 in small earthen jars hermetically sealed, a 
 foot or two under ground — except a certain 
 quantity, which, alas ! they mixed with water 
 and allowed to ferment, and boiled until its 
 intoxicating qualities were seen in a general 
 intoxication. 
 
 All contributed and brought it to the chief 
 or medicine men, when an orgie on a large 
 scale, was inaugurated. All dressed in their 
 best, the women sitting or standing on the top 
 of their huts, from ten to twenty huddled 
 together for safety, and the feast is kept up 
 until universal intoxication ensues ; and one 
 or more are often killed. 
 
56 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 Of such feasts they generally had several 
 each year, except occasionally when the cac- 
 tus fruit failed. 
 
 Rabbits were hunted with bows and arrows. 
 Caterpillars, which some years in the spring 
 are plentiful, were also gathered in large 
 quantities. They were thrown into boiling 
 water, soon taken out, salted a little and eaten. 
 
 Formerly, there were some deer and moun- 
 tain sheep in this vicinity, but the latter are 
 nearly extinct, and in hunting them there was 
 danger of trespassing on the hunting-grounds 
 of the war like Apaches. 
 
 Fish were caught in the Gila with the hand, 
 then a stick was driven through their gills 
 and bodies. The sticks were then set in the 
 ground around a small fire, and thus nicely 
 roasted, were eaten on the spot. 
 
 Often, the Indians were very hungry, espe- 
 cially in the spring, and they were then glad 
 to get one meal a day. 
 
 The huts of the Pimas were made by using 
 four stout posts, 7 long, of mesquite, forked 
 and set two feet in the ground. On these were 
 laid two principal rafters, round and across 
 these, eight or ten smaller. Over these, like 
 an inverted basket, the tops fastened and 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 57 
 
 bent to fit, were long poles, brushy top, the 
 buts outside and stuck in the ground, and the 
 whole overlaid with a layer of clay. Such a 
 roof sheds water and is so strong that twenty 
 persons could stand on it in safety, in a dry 
 season. These huts were mostly circular out- 
 side, and from eighteen to twenty feet in 
 diameter, and capable of containing eight 
 persons. No ventilation at top, but furnished 
 by a doorway in the east usually, about two 
 feet wide and two feet eight inches high. 
 The air draws in toward the center, where 
 the fire was made on the ground. The smoke 
 arose and was drawn out by the heated cur- 
 rent, at the top of the entrance. The huts 
 were, as I have said, merely sleeping- places. 
 They lived in them only in stormy weather, 
 for they were but five feet high inside, so 
 they could not stand erect. These huts lasted 
 many years, but if a member of the family 
 died, the hut was burned. 
 
 Previous to 1878, all the Pimas lived in 
 winter, or during cold weather, in what they 
 called Keahim or villages of from one hun- 
 dred to six hundred people ; and these huts 
 were called Kih's (pronounced /eey.) They 
 resembled an old-style beehive or bake-oven. 
 
58 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 Some of them were much larger than those 
 already described and elliptical in form and 
 used as a council house. 
 
 Mr. Cook says he has preached in the 
 smaller ones. " How did you standi" " I 
 sat," he replied, " and when the smoke was 
 too dense, turned my head ! " 
 
 Usually, however, he sat outside — except 
 when in the summer, the mercury arose to 
 1 20 degrees fahrenheit — with a shade of 
 brush, with his Indian congregation sitting on 
 the ground in a circle. 
 
 They listened patiently as he preached in 
 their native tongue, in which he speaks, thinks, 
 and writes, more naturally now, than in his 
 own native German or English. 
 
 In the winter, in the center of each hut, a 
 fire was built and kept burning all night, one 
 member of the family occasionally stirring 
 and renewing wood, as necessary. 
 
 They slept on mats which they made, and 
 their covering was a blanket, and so warm 
 were the huts and the winter so mild, that 
 nothing was needed to keep them comfortable. 
 All the furniture consisted of mats, ollas, 
 (earthen jars) and a few earthen dishes ; the 
 former holding two or three pails of water 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 59 
 
 and a few gourds. Many of the huts were 
 kept so neatly as to astonish one. 
 
 The Pimas had one principal chief with one 
 or more sub chiefs, to each village. These 
 were chosen usually for their bravery in war 
 and influence at home and were their leaders 
 in wars and settled disputes in villages and 
 families. At present, they have but little 
 authority. Some of the old warriors are badly 
 scarred from encounters with the Apaches, 
 and these are much respected by the young, 
 who listen in the village council house to their 
 winter evening tales of former exploits 
 
 Antonio Azul, the present head-chief, as 
 well as his father before him, was a great 
 warrior and both were always friends of the 
 white man and progressive in their views. 
 
 Many years ago, when some of the evil 
 disposed urged war with the whites, these 
 chiefs took a firm stand against such folly. 
 The others knew but little of the strength, 
 prowess and resources of the whites and 
 Mexicans ; but concluded, however, that they 
 had bad enough to do with the Apaches, 
 without embroiling themselves in wars with 
 either Mexicans or whites ; thus, consider- 
 ing " discretion the better part of valor." 
 
6o THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 They bury their dead m a sitting posture, 
 six feet below ground, as do so many Indian 
 tribes. 
 
 Mr. Cook says, " Not very long ago, the 
 cattle and horses, belonging to a deceased 
 person, if a husband, were killed and eaten 
 by the mourners and neighbors, except such 
 as were given by him to the heirs in the fam- 
 ily, and other possessions, including even 
 wheat and other food were burned with the 
 house. 
 
 The bereaved relatives consequently had 
 nothing left at times, on which to live, until 
 next harvest, unless friends came to their relief. 
 
 Mourning for a child and relatives of distant 
 consanguinity usually lasted a month. If a 
 child died early in the morning or late in the 
 evening, the mourners went a little distance 
 from the village and you could hear their 
 plaintive cry, My child ! oh ! my child ! 
 
 If a husband, or wife died, mourning lasted 
 six months or a year. After this the name of 
 the departed ones must never be mentioned, 
 and everything relating to them, appear for- 
 gotten. The women wore sack-cloth as did 
 the Jews for the memory of the departed." 
 
 " The only thing " says the missionary, "that 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 6l 
 
 I have found, showing the least conception of 
 their belief in a future existence, was that the 
 mother prepared food and scattered it to the 
 winds, with some evident hope that the depart- 
 ed might thereby find something to eat." 
 He says farther and what seems strange and 
 incongruous, " I once saw a party of Indians 
 going to a funeral as joyful as if going to a 
 dance. On inquiring where they were going, 
 they replied to a funeral to eat beef." 
 
 At the time of which we are writing, these 
 natives wore only a breech-cloth around the 
 loins, except the girls, who wore an apron. 
 In winter, the men had a long shirt, similar 
 to the Chinese blouse. Women over twelve 
 years added a chemise or skirt tied around 
 the waist. Unlike the Indians in the cold 
 north, in the days when buffaloes roamed in 
 vast herds and who clothed themselves in 
 warm robes, these needed very little cover- 
 ing in winter, and like all heathen, were 
 indifferent to the exposure of their person. 
 
 Their shoes were simply buckskin. They 
 usually went barefoot, except when travelling. 
 The men wore their hair longer than the 
 women, dressing it with mud and gum made 
 from the mesquite tree, They wore this dur- 
 
62 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 ing the night and washed it ofiE in the morn- 
 ing. The women wore their hair cut short 
 over their eyebrows in a "bang." The hair 
 dressing just named, gave the hair a black 
 and glossy appearance, and it was also a good 
 dye. 
 
 If one is sick, he sends for the medicine 
 man, often to a distant village. He comes 
 with great pomp, long eagle feathers, and rat- 
 tle in hand, of which he makes good use. If 
 he is on horseback, which is usually the case, 
 his horse is taken as he dismounts, and as 
 soon as possible his appetite is appeased, and 
 he goes at his work with the patient. A 
 paper of the indispensable tobacco is fur- 
 nished. He has no pills nor powders, no cal- 
 omel or morphine, not even a saddlebag. 
 He spends the night smoking his cigarettes 
 blowing the whiffs in the face of his patient, 
 sings weird songs, rattling and fanning to 
 blow away the devils that caused the sickness. 
 
 For certain pains, the patient was scarified 
 with broken glass or sharp stones. An 
 instance of this kind is as follows : A woman 
 had sprained her ankle. She then washed it, 
 sat down, broke several pieces from a glass 
 bottle and cut the flesh till the blood ran in 
 many places and then went about her business. 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 63 
 
 Another case was that of a girl, who was 
 taken sick while attending a school. She was 
 taken to Maricopa to a doctor and died the 
 next day. It was ascertained afterwards that 
 these Maricopa doctors, (sorcerers) when it 
 was the wish of the relatives, or when recovery- 
 was doubtful, took a club and killed the 
 patient. 
 
 Rabbit-hunting was formerly one of their 
 modes of killing the witch that caused the 
 sickness which was supposed to reside in a 
 certain rabbit. 
 
 On learning that Missionary Cook taught 
 differently and damaged their reputation for 
 destroying the witches, th^y retaliated by 
 arranging to have the hunt many times on 
 Sunday, and thus draw largely from his con- 
 gregation. Ever since the missionary began 
 work here, these medicine men have been an 
 annoyance and hindrance to his work, but 
 they have invariably turned out badly. 
 
 There is but little doubt that if all the 
 facts could be known, many of the murders 
 of whites by the Apaches, and other tribes 
 and wars and depredations in this territory, 
 could be traced to the instigation of these 
 medicine men. They are one of the most 
 
64 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 dangerous elements with which government, 
 especially the Indian department, has to con- 
 tend. They are ambitious, artful, and unscru- 
 pulous, and in this vicinity have done more to 
 destroy the efforts of Indian agents to im- 
 prove the condition of the Indian, both in 
 school-work and their moral elevation, than 
 all other undermining and checking influences 
 combined. Nearly all are low, vulgar, licen- 
 tious, and dishonest, and spare no pains to 
 keep the tribe from every good and honorable 
 work. The Indians crave excitement and 
 amusement. Since the hunt and chase are 
 things of the past, a substitute of some kind 
 is required. 
 
 One of the amusements of the women, was 
 that of tossing balls. They had two small 
 ones covered with buckskin, and tied about 
 six inches apart. Young women and married 
 from thirty to seventy-five in a group, assem- 
 bled dressed as for a ball, their hair carefully 
 manipulated so as to be black and glossy. 
 Each had a stick of willow, six feet long. 
 With these they dexterously tossed the balls 
 high in the air, running after them until one 
 party was so weary that they gave up the 
 game from mere exhaustion. 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 65 
 
 In order to make the excitement a success, 
 they had certain active women, keen of wit, 
 and quick of action, practice weeks in advance. 
 This muscular play, in addition to other work, 
 developed strong muscular action and healthy 
 bodies, gave the women a better constitution 
 than the men ; the latter, sometimes dying 
 from debility, and consumption. 
 
 The men were addicted to gambling. 
 From two to eight sat on the ground from 
 half a day to a whole day at the game. They 
 had a flat stone about four inches in diameter 
 and four fiat pieces of wood, eight inches long 
 and one wide. With this stone in one hand 
 and four sticks held together, each of which 
 had certain marks on two surfaces, no two 
 alike, they hit the sticks with the stone, knock- 
 ing high in air, and as they fell into the cen- 
 tre of the circle around which they sat, the 
 marks were counted, and scored and credit 
 given to the winning side of each game. The 
 party that lost gave so many little sticks to 
 the winning side. The stakes were valuable, 
 worth from one dollar to fifty ; sometimes a 
 horse or pony, a steer or cow. 
 
 Foot races were of common occurrence. 
 Sometimes between two villages, or a num- 
 
66 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 ber. The grounds were prepared, every 
 obstruction removed for a space i,ooo yards 
 long, and a rod in width. The goal was 
 distinctly marked at each end. The racers 
 having practiced long, met at the ground, 
 denuded, except a cloth around the loins. 
 Wives or sweethearts, fathers and mothers 
 assembled in crowds to witness the race, on 
 both sides of the track. One party in a 
 village is marked by a blue, another from a 
 near village by a red ribbon. The racer has 
 his insignia to denote to which party he 
 belongs. The day arrives. Part of the blues 
 are on one side of the track, part on the 
 other, and so of the reds. The crowd on 
 both sides is great. Horses, cows, cattle, as 
 prizes, are on the ground near by. Betting 
 runs high hours before the race. When all 
 are ready, two men, a red and a blue, with 
 toe on the mark, stand ready for the signal 
 to start. Cool, yet determined, stand the con- 
 testants. As the word is given, two, a red 
 and a blue, dash forward. The instant one 
 touches the mark at the opposite end, another 
 of his party starts back. If the one who 
 started with him is behind, the man of his party 
 must wait till he touches the line. If his 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 67 
 
 party continues to lag and cannot gain wliat 
 is lost, the other side eventually wins. But 
 this may continue for hours before the victory 
 is won. 
 
 During all the time the villagers on both 
 sides of the track were divided, so that half 
 the blues were on one side and half on the 
 other, and vice versa of the reds, the parties 
 shouting and halloing, men on horseback 
 and women as much excited as the men. 
 When the die is cast the winners take their 
 prizes and leave for home. Sometimes a race 
 was run between two persons, champions, 
 from three to five miles, and the amount 
 staked reached $500 worth of livestock and 
 dry goods. In these races, men and women 
 who had large stakes, as their favorite racer 
 lagged, ran after him, hooting and prodding 
 with a sharp stick, so intense was the excite- 
 ment. 
 
 There was one advantage which these 
 Indians had over horse racers of this day. 
 Although the excitement was great and 
 betting strong, and the gambling dissipating 
 to morals, there was so far as we know, no 
 drinking. 
 
70 THE PIMA TNDIAN MISSION. 
 
 faces and hair painted, war clubs and shields 
 or bows and arrows and sometimes lances, 
 and some food. They then met in a village 
 and there danced as many evenings as they 
 expected to be absent. 
 
 While the young sang and danced, the war- 
 prophets sat near and prophesied in regard to 
 what their success should be, like the " Oracle 
 of Delphi." 
 
 Having learned that it was not the custom 
 of the Apaches to fight at night, a new system 
 of tactics was inaugurated by the Pimas. 
 Taking Apache captives for guides they man- 
 aged to reach their villages at night, stealthily 
 approached them and beat them with clubs, 
 and usually killed them before they had time 
 to rub their eyes open. Such raids were some- 
 times very disastrous, at other times success- 
 ful, as they brought home captives, and if no 
 Pimas had been killed they had a glorious 
 dance, in which nearly the whole tribe joined. 
 The dancing being mostly side-jumps by sev- 
 eral thousand who joined hands, made ^the 
 earth tremble for quite a distance. After the 
 festivities were over, most of the captives were 
 taken to the Papagoes, or to Sonora in Mexico; 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 7 1 
 
 and there sold as slaves, at a price ranging 
 from sixty to one hundred dollars, in goods 
 and livestock. Then thos« who had killed 
 an enemy, had to remain outside the camp for 
 a month, their food being brought to them. 
 At the end of a month or moon, the process 
 of cleansing was performed, and the braves 
 were then allowed to mingle again with the 
 people. 
 
 In this connection we may mention the war- 
 drill. From the age of two years, up to old 
 age, the males carried bows, and arrows. 
 Some of the experts occasionally gave a drill 
 in the practice of club and shield. Much 
 depended on fleetness of foot. Some young 
 women could travel from forty to fifty miles 
 in sixteen hours, and there were warriors who 
 ran twenty miles, keeping a horse on a canter, 
 following them. 
 
 Some imitated the Apaches in their system 
 of telegraphing from the top of steep hills or 
 mountains, by smoke in the day or fire at 
 night ; although in this the Pimas could not 
 compete with their neighbors, whose system 
 was so perfect for communicating great dis- 
 tances, even from sixty to one hundred miles, 
 which is well known to our army officers who 
 
72 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 fought them. The Pimas, however, were 
 fully their equal in "trailing." He could 
 even distinguish .the prints of feet in the 
 sand, of those of his village, and friends, so 
 as to tell you who had passed before him, 
 and the print of his horse's hoofs from those 
 of any other horse. 
 
 Sham battles were also frequently given, 
 some of the Pimas representing the Apaches 
 so well, that if a white man had passed he 
 would undoubtedly have been deceived by 
 them. After the battle had waged some 
 time, as usual in such cases, the Pimas came 
 off conquerors without losing a man. The 
 opposition, however, did not lose esteem on 
 that account. 
 
 In 1872, Major Gen. O. O. Howard was 
 sent to this territory by President Grant, with 
 a view to establishing peace between the 
 Indians and the whites. General Howard 
 went with only one of his aids, to see Cochise, 
 chief of the Chirichua Apaches, at his head- 
 quarters. This was an act of daring which 
 few would perform. Cochise consented to 
 live at peace in Arizona, but not in Mexico, 
 where as he claimed his father had .been 
 foully murdered, after making a treaty, and 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 73 
 
 after coming out of one of their churches. 
 It is possible that this may have been done 
 by some crank, for it seems hardly credible 
 that the priests or authorities would have 
 committed an act which afterward, no doubt, 
 cost the lives of thousands. 
 
 After this Gerf. Howard visited the Pimas, 
 inspected the school then conducted by Mis- 
 sionary Cook, expressing his approbation at 
 finding it not only on the pay Hst, but a school 
 in reality. 
 
 The general then requested the Pimas to 
 send a large delegation to make peace with 
 the Apaches, at Camp Grant. 
 
 Gen. Crook and Gov. Safford were there, 
 and Tucson was well represented. There 
 was much talk, which lasted two days. Eski- 
 mensin was the Apache ofator and chief 
 speaker for that tribe. 
 
 An Apache, seeing Louis, the Pima inter- 
 preter, came to meet him in high glee. Taking 
 his hand, he said : " You are the Pima who 
 killed me years ago." Louis then recognized 
 him as the man to whom he had dealt a heavy 
 blow with a war-club, and then left him for 
 dead on the battle-field. Peace-making pro- 
 gressed and all were pleased, except in one 
 
74 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 item of the contracts. The Apaches wanted 
 the captives restored who had been taken at 
 the Camp Grant massacre, {vide " Century of 
 Dishonor," by H. H., pp. 324-335)- They 
 were nearly all held by Mexicans, who objected 
 pleading that they could not allow them to 
 return to heathenism, that they had learned 
 to love them and their hearts would almost 
 break at the thought of it. Eskimensin lis- 
 tened patiently, then evidently much moved, 
 spoke nearly as follows : " Your hearts must 
 have become very tender all at once. Not 
 long ago, when the men were away hunting, 
 you came here and killed defenceless old men, 
 women and children. You took a number of 
 our children to Tucson to sell into slavery of 
 and when some of the little ones cried for 
 their homes and murdered mothers, you put 
 water on their heads," (baptized them) " and 
 then you took them by the legs and knocked 
 their heads against the rocks and killed them 
 and left them for the coyotes to eat. How 
 does it happen that your hearts have got so 
 tender all at once ? " The massacre occurred 
 but little over a year previous and was fresh in 
 the minds of many present, among whom, in 
 this council, was our missionary, who heard 
 all the discussions. 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 75 
 
 Gen. Howard left the settlement of the 
 question in regard to retaining or returning 
 the captives, to President Grant, who issued 
 an order subsequently for the return of the 
 captives. 
 
 Because Gen. Howard did not assume 
 authority and return the captives, some were 
 offended, and a ■ ruse was attempted but 
 failed. It was as follows : Mannel, a tame 
 Apache, who was also an interpreter, came to 
 the Pimas, requesting them to take care of 
 his horse and rifle for an hour, until he could 
 bid good-bye to some of his relations. To 
 this the Pimas assented. After two hours, 
 word came that Mannel could not be found, 
 and fears were entertained that there had 
 been foul plaj', and he had been put out of 
 the way by the Apaches. This story was the 
 all-absorbing theme of conversation for some 
 time, and was published in the newspapers. 
 
 Having seen carriages leave for Tucson, 
 soon after Mannel left, the Pimas came to the 
 conclusion that the Mexicans had captured 
 him instead of the Apaches. They sent to 
 Tucson, and lo ! after enjoying a nice car- 
 riage ride, here was Mannel safe and sound. 
 
 Since this " treaty," there have been no_ 
 wars between the Pimas and Apaches. 
 
7*6 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 Very few of the Pimas were originally poly- 
 gamists. There are many examples that show 
 honorable fidelity of husband and wife to each 
 other for life. This, however, was not the 
 case with the majority. 
 
 Some time after the treaty mentioned in the 
 last chapter, an Apache squaw, a captive, who 
 had been married to a Pima Indian and was 
 much loved by her Pima sisters, was claimed 
 by her brother, as it was understood by the 
 treaty that the Pimas were to deliver up the 
 Apache captives to their tribe. In the absence 
 of the government superintendent, the mis- 
 sionary, acting as agent, decided the case. He 
 asked the Apache woman how she liked her 
 husband and what treatment she had received 
 from him ? She expressed herself as perfectly 
 satisfied, and desired to live with him always 
 The husband fully reciprocated. He was in- 
 formed that they must not be separated, as 
 they were truly husband and- wife. "But," 
 added the missionary, " there is no law against 
 a Pima husband making a present of a good 
 pony to his brother-in-law, or his wife visiting 
 her family as often as she may choose. At 
 this suggestion, all were well pleased, and the 
 Apache brother-in-law rode home on his pony, 
 perhaps the first he had ever owned. 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 77 
 
 Until the last one hundred years, the Pimas 
 knew little or nothing of the Spaniards. At 
 one time a number of the Indians were invited 
 to visit Tucson, (pronounced Took-sone, or 
 Too-spne), meaning Blackfoot hills. They 
 here saw Mexicans, soldiers, cannon and fire- 
 arms. The Indians were treated to beef for 
 the first time, which they greatly enjoyed. 
 
 Here they met the CathoHc priests, called 
 by the Mexicans, padre, or father. They 
 taught them of the advent of the Saviour into 
 the world and invited them to join the mis- 
 sion. The subject was new to them and they 
 could not take it in readily. They wanted to 
 discuss the matter at home with their chief 
 and others, so they declined after the coun- 
 cil was over. Some time after this, Chief 
 Haran-n-mawk (Raven hair) of the Papagoes, 
 came with many of his people from Tucson, 
 to the Pimas on the Gila, for refuge. They 
 stated that the Mexicans wanted him and his 
 people, without sufificient supplies, to wage an 
 unceasing warfare on the Apaches. Not 
 long after, however, a body of Mexicans with 
 cavalry and artillery came in pursuit, where- 
 upon the Papagoes and Pimas, after hiding 
 their scanty supply of food, fled to the fast- 
 
78 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 nesses of the mountains west of this place, 
 terror-stricken at the booming of cannon and 
 of fire-arms. Here, like " Leonidas," they 
 could defend themselves in the canons for 
 months, against the foe in front. They sub- 
 sisted on the mescal, in part, which grows on 
 the top of a mountain range, where the enemy 
 could not reach them. But after waiting for 
 months, the Mexicans, their enemies, still 
 occupying their villages, ready and thirsting 
 for a fight, a sterner foe in camp threatened 
 them. The mescal gave out. The men were 
 afraid of the cannon and fire-arms, and their 
 children cried for food. The squaws pro- 
 posed to go and fight — driven as they were 
 by hunger and the fruitless wails of the child- 
 ren — if the husbands would not go. In this 
 extremity, the lion-hearted Ravenhair and 
 his two sons, went and surrendered. The 
 Mexicans took them and hanged them on a 
 tree. They then returned to Tucson. 
 
 It is supposed that many of those Papagoes 
 (one village) have resided near the Pimas, 
 until the last two years, and a few still remain. 
 Some time after the above event, several 
 priests with a band of soldiers, came to 
 establish a mission near Casa-Blanca, but the 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 79 
 
 Pimas forbade them. It was about this time 
 that the Pimas, with the help of the Papagoes, 
 managed to get a few ponies. 
 
 It is about sixty or sixty-five years since 
 the first cattle were brought to the Pimas. 
 Many of the old Pimas remember the event 
 distinctly. Many of the Indians were at first 
 frightened at their horns and shaking of the 
 heads and bellowing of the cattle. But the 
 old Quacherty, a branch of the Pimas, finally 
 quieted their fears, assuring them that they 
 were harmless and very valuable for work and 
 beef. Henceforth, cattle were driven from 
 Sonora, Mexico, bought in trade and fre- 
 quently stolen by Mexicans, Yaqui Indians 
 and Papagoes, and sold to the Pimas at 
 reduced rates. 
 
 The Quatcharty Indian who brought the 
 first cattle, married a Pima woman. Some of 
 his sons were killed in the recent war with 
 the Apaches, and one died about four years 
 ago. One of his daughters is a most faithful 
 christian. His son, named Joseph Roberts, 
 the only elder in the Pima Presbyterian 
 Church here, and a number of his children 
 and grandchildren are members also ; one of 
 whom, a pupil in the Indian training school 
 
8o ^ THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 at Tucson, plays the organ well. Our Elder, 
 who was also a great warrior, does good ser- 
 vice now in the army of the Lord. 
 
 Some of these Pimas responded to the call 
 of Gen. Miles, as spies, and aided him in 
 capturing " Geronimo " and his band, now 
 under guard at Mount Vernon, Alabama. 
 They were always glad to aid the U. S. 
 government in every way possible. Besides 
 the Pimas there are other tribes of Indians 
 living in the western part of Arizona. 
 
 The Maricopas, who many years ago took 
 refuge among the Pimas and still reside here, 
 speak the Yuma language. Twenty years 
 ago they numbered four hundred and fifty 
 souls. They are now reduced to but half 
 as many. In some respects they resemble 
 the Yumas. The Pimas about the same time 
 numbered four thousand and have not 
 diminished since. The Papagoes, Quatchar- 
 ties, and others, who speak the Pima lan- 
 guage, probably amount to the same number, 
 exclusive of those who reside outside perma- 
 nently in Sonora, Mexico. Most of the Papa- 
 goes, except a few who reside near San 
 Xavier, live in villages, where they cultivate 
 the soil when the rains are sufficient to raise 
 
THK PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 8r 
 
 a crop, but are nomadic at other times. Tliey 
 live on deserts, where as soon as the whites oc- 
 cupy all the grazing lands adjacent, it will be 
 impossible for them to subsist much longer. 
 They will be driven to the wall and starve to 
 death This is inevitable unless provision is 
 made for them. Should not our government 
 set apart a small portion of the Pan Handle 
 in the Indian Territory for them and other 
 Indians similarly situated, before they become 
 extinct, and provide them a home and schools, 
 and should not the churches provide them a 
 missionary ? 
 
 The Quatcharties have built long dams 
 across the valleys above their fields, where 
 they store much water in the rainy seasons, and 
 irrigate at pleasure. 
 
 Frequently in the summer many of the 
 Papagoes come to the reservation here and 
 help the Pimas at wheat harvest on shares, 
 and earn sufficient to keep the wolf from the 
 door the rest of the year. Others near the 
 Sonora line spend much of their time in 
 Mexico for the same purpose. Some also go 
 to the San Pedro valley. They travel with 
 burros, small mules and on ponies, carrying 
 household goods, cooking utensils especially. 
 
82 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 camping wherever night overtakes them. 
 They build a small rude hut on short notice, 
 generally in a day, for a short stay. Some 
 speak a little mongrel Spanish, and show a 
 mixture of Mexican and Spanish blood. 
 
 They are fairly clean. They raise more 
 asses and mules than the Pimas, and formerly 
 more cattle and horses. Some of them, before 
 the railroad was built, stole stock from the 
 Pimas and sold it in Mexico, and the Pimas 
 played at the same game. 
 
 U. S. agent, Capt. Grossman, tried to 
 induce them to settle on the Gila in 1870 or 
 187 1, but their free and roving nature rebelled. 
 They preferred the deserts and little springs 
 in the mountains. A few of them make good 
 laborers, but the majority decline to work. 
 When hunger forces them out of ruts and 
 huts during the winter or early spring, they 
 come by hundreds, in a long caravan to the 
 Pimas whom they know to be more provident. 
 
 A small delegation is sent in advance to 
 advertise the Pimas that they are very hungry, 
 and will soon appear to give them a great 
 dance in exchange for something to eat. 
 Looking south some day, you may see a great 
 dust for miles along the road. As the cara- 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 83 
 
 van approaches, you behold Indians, squaws, 
 kids and papooses, some on ponies, others on 
 mules or asses, two or three often on one 
 animal, with extra beasts to carry grain back. 
 They give the Pimas two or three nights' 
 dancing, in return for which each Pima family 
 is expected to give fifty or one hundred 
 pounds of wheat — so great is their own 
 estimate of the exhibition, and the generosity 
 of the Pimas. This wheat is collected by the ■ 
 Papagoes in the various villages, as they 
 tarried, and by them transported to their 
 homes. So hungry were some of these little 
 Papago children, as to be delighted at find- 
 ing a crust of coarse bread just cast away, 
 which the average white child v/ould have 
 spurned. 
 
 Previous to the Independence of Mexico, 
 i. e. in 1822-25, many of the Papagoes who 
 were under the influence of the Padres, wore 
 their hair short while among the Pimas. The 
 Quatcharties, and others have always worn 
 theirs long, thus avoiding the necessity of 
 any other covering for the head. A few of 
 them settled among the Pimas, and taught 
 them the art of raising wheat. At this date, 
 perhaps owing to their desert homes, and 
 
§4 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 Other causes, they are behind the Pimas in 
 wealth and civilization. With the exception 
 of those living in villages, they oppose schools. 
 
 The Apaches in Arizona and New Mexico, 
 differ from the other tribes in many respects. 
 Their principal mode of eking out a living 
 was heretofore by the chase and gathering 
 the mescal and by, robbery. The mescal is a 
 plant with an enormous root, quite nourishing, 
 corresponding to the bread-fruit in foreign 
 countries. 
 
 One thing may be conceded to them — they 
 were the most virtuous of Indians, (if any are 
 chaste), although adultery was punished with 
 them by killing the man and cutting off the 
 nose of the woman. To some extent, how- 
 ever, they have practiced polygamy. 
 
 The natural resources of their country 
 were such, that they could have kept one 
 hundred thousand head of cattle, with little 
 or no work or oversight, had they been so 
 inclined, and many of the villages could have 
 produced the best of fruits and grain, had 
 their people been industrious, like the whites, 
 if they had been taught ; yet they knew so 
 little of the way of cultivating the soil, that 
 at times they were so hungry as to capture a 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 85 
 
 Coyote in a trap, cook, and eat it — a thing 
 that even an Indian rarely does. 
 
 The Camp — Apache Indians are probably 
 the most susceptible to Christianizing influ- 
 ences of any of the tribes in this territory. 
 Long ago, they asked for a missionary who 
 would help them and teach them how to live, 
 both for this world and the next. So far the 
 churches have not responded. There is a 
 probability, however, that the German Luth- 
 erans will soon establish a mission among 
 them. There is a great need of suitable 
 young men and women, to be educated as 
 teachers and missionaries, and even store- 
 keepers and farmers, to go and live among 
 such tribes as these, all over the country 
 where there are Indians. But they should go 
 married, as husband and wife. It is ques- 
 tionable whether two women, however conse- 
 crated, can succeed. A very important aim 
 in all our Indian mission schools, should be 
 first to evangelize the Indians of both sexes, 
 then to fit them to return and make homes 
 and aid the above missionaries by supple- 
 menting their efforts. 
 
 The statistics of the Indian tribes in this 
 territory as given by the commissioner of 
 
86 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 Indian affairs, Gen. T. J. Morgan, Vol. 2, 
 1891, is as follows : 
 
 Colorado-rini agency, 2,891 
 
 Navajoe agency, 17)852 
 
 Pima agency, 9.69S 
 
 San Carlos agency, 4,819 
 
 There are all told under government pro- 
 tection, 38,481. 
 
 This brings us to the present, and shows 
 what has been done for the Indians on this 
 Pima reservation during ihe past two decades. 
 
 Before the advent of the S. P. R. R., the 
 Pimas were doubtless the best known tribe in 
 Arizona. The overland mail road and most 
 of the traflSc of the territory at that time 
 passed through this reservation. No danger 
 here from Apaches or Mexicans, who for a 
 time made it their business to kill and plunder 
 between Tucson and Yi^ma. 
 
 It is true, a few of the " baser sort," often 
 drove the mules or horses of the freight teams 
 away, when grazing a little distance, in order 
 to obtain a reward for hunting them. Other- 
 wise, but few depredations were committed. 
 Twenty- five years ago, there were six trad- 
 ing establishments on this reservation, where 
 you could purchase calico or muslin at twenty 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 87 
 
 five cents per yard, a cake of soap at the 
 same price, sugar at fifty cents a pound and 
 canned goods at from seventy-five cents to a 
 dollar per can. The goods were brought 
 over-land from San Diego, Cal. Wheat 
 brought prices in fair proportion, one dollar 
 and fifty to two dollars per hundred pounds. 
 With the Indians, wheat was their " stock in 
 trade." So the early traders did all they could 
 to encourage them in agricultural pursuits. 
 The plow was of the most primitive make. 
 It was patterned after those made in Egypt, 
 3,000 or 4,000 years ago, or the one used by 
 Elisha, vide i Kings, 19:19. It consisted of 
 a beam of mesquite wood, a hook with a 
 handle and a pole fastened to it. The share 
 was simply a piece of mesquite, three inches 
 square and two feet long, sharpened at the 
 lower end and fastened ingeniously at the 
 upper end at an angle of fifty degrees, into 
 the beam. The pole was fastened to the 
 plow at one end, and to the ox-yoke at the 
 other. The yoke, instead of resting on the 
 neck, was fastened in a curious manner to the 
 horns of the oxen. This plow answered the 
 purpose of plow and harrow. It required 
 from four to six yoke of oxen to do the work 
 
88 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 (which was but little more than scratching 
 the ground) for a whole village, and was 
 owned by two or three families. 
 
 During the past ten years this tribe has pro- 
 duced from sixty to seventy thousand bushels 
 of wheat a year, the government having lately 
 furnished them axes, spades and modern 
 plows, which they highly prize. 
 
 The first Indian day school under govern- 
 ment was opened among the Pimas by Mr. 
 Cook in 1 87 1 . This he conducted successfully 
 for seven years and for two 3'ears more he was 
 employed as trader. During this time, besides 
 serving the government and the Indians with 
 fidelty, he was preparing for a still greater 
 work as a missionary exclusively. 
 
 Not long after this a school was opened at 
 San Xavier. Gov. McCormick the delegate 
 to congress, and his wife, visited the school 
 and secured government aid for suitable build- 
 ings. The Ladies' Union Mission School As- 
 sociation in New York, at this time having 
 had their attention called to the needs of these 
 Indians by army officers, employed and sent 
 a lady teacher. They also very kindly sent 
 (and have several times since repeated the 
 act) a good Mason and Hamlin organ and 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 89 
 
 Other supplies for the school, all of which were 
 fully appreciated, as they added very efficiently 
 to the work. After the day school had existed 
 eight years' it was changed to a boarding 
 school. This school resembles most of the 
 other Indian boarding schools. There has 
 been a gradual growth and improvement, 
 becoming more apparent during the last few 
 years. 
 
 The girls receive good training in all lines 
 of housekeeping and the boys learn such trades 
 and modes of farming as will fit them for a 
 useful life, as citizens. They are frequently 
 drilled in military tacticsj in two companies, 
 before school. This is done by native ser- 
 geants in a manner that would surprise a 
 West Point cadet. They perform with a celer- 
 ity of action and unanimity of motion that 
 would do honor to a company of national 
 guards of Arizona. It is amusing to see the 
 children imitate their drill-master and their 
 delight in the exercise. They do as well — 
 possibly better — under an Indian, than a 
 white man. In the day school they memorize 
 the ten commandments and other portions of 
 scripture with remarkable facility — especially 
 considering the fact that they are just begin- 
 ning to learn the English language. 
 
90 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 This school, started twenty years ago with 
 hungry and almost naked Indians, has grown 
 and multiplied until at present there are about 
 five hundred pupils in the various schools in 
 this territory and in Albuquerque, New Mex- 
 ico. And it would require no very great 
 effort to place all the children under school 
 training. One of the best schools in the 
 country, for educating the Pimas and Papa- 
 goes, is the Indian training and industrial 
 school at Tucson. It was first opened in Jan- 
 uary, 1888, and now has one hundred and 
 fifty or more pupils. Rev. Howard Billman 
 is the efficient superintendent and is seconded 
 in his efforts by his estimable wife, and a corps 
 of faithful, earnest co-workers. 
 
 Not all Indian agents are good or wise men : 
 would that they were ! The injury that some 
 of them have done, it is difficult to estimate 
 and can never be repaired. Those who recom- 
 mend and those who have the power of 
 appointment, should be slow in their selection, 
 unless assured of their fitness for the position. 
 A mistake may not be corrected, until evil 
 has been wrought and then it is too late. Here, 
 however, we have had some very good men in 
 position. Mr. C. W. Grouse, the present 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 91 
 
 incumbent, has worked hard and done well in 
 bettering the condition of the Pimas and Papa- 
 goes. Besides erecting several large build 
 ings for school purposes and for the general 
 benefit of the Indians, he has erected a flour- 
 ing mill, capable of producing twenty-five 
 barrels a day of (24 hours), that will save its 
 cost in one year. He has utilized Indian labor 
 to its utmost ability, thus saving expense and 
 teaching them how to work at the same time ; 
 and they are not slow to learn. 
 
 He has built an irrigating canal over six 
 miles in length, in which he was assisted by 
 Mr. Cook, who has done a similar work for 
 the Indians several times in past years. In 
 the construction of these buildings and other 
 improvements, Indians were principally em- 
 ployed. This has given them a fair living 
 and the training they needed, so that at pres- 
 ent they require no assistance in constructing 
 the walls of an adobe building, painting or 
 plastering. The miller, who is engineer also, 
 has trained his assistants (Indians) so that 
 he needs no other heJp in running his engine. 
 
 Much has been said and written in regard 
 to the best way of elevating the Indian. 
 Many who are in other respects wise, yet 
 
92 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 lacking in knowledge of Indian character 
 from not having studied it on the ground, 
 declare that you can do nothing with the 
 adult Indians. Educate the young, say they, 
 separate them for years from all tribal in- 
 fluences and you may.do a little for them, but 
 you cannot do anything for their parents. 
 
 Here is a direct and palpable refutation 
 of this sentiment. These friends of the 
 Indians forget, or ignore what the Great 
 Teacher commanded over i,8oo years ago : 
 " Go preach my gospel to every creature." 
 With the same means that have produced 
 these results here, why may not the same be 
 expected elsewhere? To educate the intel- 
 lect only, and leave the heart untouched, is 
 to do but little for the Indian. 
 
 The Presbyterian Church has had one 
 missionary here laboring under a commission 
 of her Board of Home Missions, for less than 
 twelve years. During this time he has 
 received over eighty members into the church, 
 who before knew but little or nothing of 
 evangelical Christianity. We have two church 
 edifices twelve miles apart on this reservation, 
 the one at Blackwater on the east seating one 
 hundred and fifty, this one three hundred, 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 93 
 
 and both of these are full every Sabbath and 
 frequently crowded. 
 
 It is expected that a third chapel will be 
 erected this year, thirty miles west of Sacaton, 
 and that two native helpers will be commis- 
 sioned to assist the missionary in his large 
 and expanding field. 
 
 Many come regularly to church a distance 
 of from two to twenty miles, and not a few 
 twenty or thirty miles. In summer, when 
 churches in town are closed from the intense 
 .heat, these overflow with a multitude who are 
 attracted, not by the eloquence of the 
 preacher or by the exquisite rendering of 
 chants by a well trained choir, or soul-stirring 
 peals of the organ, but from pure love to 
 God and delight in the service of preaching, 
 prayer and praise. This influence on a people 
 just emerging from heathenism and breaking 
 up old superstitions and vices, and instead of 
 them, leading an industrious and virtuous life, 
 must far exceed that of churches in town on a 
 civilized people. 
 
 The Indian mind and heart is virgin soil, 
 never working but when properly cultivated ; 
 though slow in development and requiring 
 great patience, yet when thoroughly wrought. 
 
94 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 upon by the Holy Spirit, yields more ample 
 returns and sometimes more rapid, than a 
 gospel-hardened soil. 
 
 The Indian belongs to the great human 
 family. He is below his white brother in 
 mind, morals and heart culture, /. e., the 
 representative of the cultured man, but cer- 
 tainly not below his ancestors in the dark 
 ages, before the dawn of Christianity. 
 
 Formerly news of importance was given 
 from mouth to mouth, or by the captain of a 
 village, morning and evening. He stood on 
 the roof of his house, and proclaimed in a 
 voice so loud that the captain in the next 
 village heard and repeated, until all the vil- 
 lages, one after another, had heard the latest 
 war, or other news. Now, the young Pima 
 reads his newspaper or letters from friends in 
 distant schools, and replies with as much inter 
 est, as his white neighbor. It is said that 
 " Kid," the notorious Apache renegade, for 
 whom parties are now in pursuit, can read, 
 write and even operate the telegraph. 
 
 During the past ten years the more civilized 
 and christianized Pimas have built about one 
 hundred and twenty adobe houses, most of 
 them giiperipr tp the .average Mexican house. 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 95 
 
 Not contented with this, and finding that in a 
 wet season, havinga flat roof of brush, and mud 
 they leak badly — imitating their pale-faced 
 brother — they have begun to put on a shin- 
 gled roof, of one-third pitch, and there are 
 three such within sight. They have cleared 
 new land, and if sufficient water were pro- 
 vided at all seasons of the year, nothing could 
 hinder their advancement in wealth and pros- 
 perity. At present there is an average of one 
 pony to every man, woman and child of the 
 tribe, and many have wagons, while some 
 enjoy the luxury of a carriage. Some of 
 them have herds of cattle ranging from ten 
 to three hundred. Most of the field work is 
 now done by ponies. They have purchased 
 within the past five years, about forty sewing 
 machines of which they are justly proud. A 
 lame Indian heretofore very poor, has a hand 
 machine, with which he earns good wages, as 
 a tailor, and now comes nine miles to church 
 in his carriage. Formerly, they were often 
 hungry, but now all who work have enough 
 to eat. The clothing of men and women is 
 respectable and many a young girl, especially 
 in summer, during vacation, comes to church 
 as stylish as her white sister. It speaks well 
 
g6 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 for their school-training, when it was plainly 
 visible last summer that those girls who had 
 been at the Indian Training School at Tucson, 
 after being at home two months, on their 
 return, were if possible more neat apd tidy 
 in their white dresses than when they came. 
 The Pimas have always been self-sustaining, 
 receiving only a few wagons and agricultural 
 implements from the government, to encour- 
 age them to help themselves, when greatly 
 needed. 
 
 ' Many of these Indians now appreciate the 
 value of an education. Both our govern- 
 ment and army officers have been the true 
 friends of these Indians. Unscrupulous 
 agents, and inspectors we have had, but they 
 have been " exceptions, not the rule." 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 Some Account of the Ftrst Organization of the 
 Ladies' Union Mission School Association 
 AND ITS Connection with the Mission to the 
 
 PiMAS. 
 
 The Ladies' Association formed in New 
 York city in the month of March, i868, to 
 which reference has been made in the intro- 
 duction to this narrative, after two years' 
 active service in the territories formerly 
 known as Spanish America, entered upon a 
 new and wider field of labor. The first society 
 which was a union of several christian denom- 
 inations, on the reunion of the two branches 
 of the Presbyterian Church in 1870, became 
 auxiliary to the Boards of Home and Foreign 
 Missions of the Presbyterian Church ; con- 
 sequently the " Albany Branch," which was 
 union in its character was re-organized as an 
 independent society, not auxiliary to any 
 church board, but at liberty to aid in sustain- 
 ing mission schools both among the Indians 
 of Arizona and in the destitute portions of 
 onr western territory. 
 
 The mission to the Pima Indians having 
 been urged upon the attention of the Albany 
 
98 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 society, the new organization entered heartily 
 upon this christian work and they were 
 greatly encouraged by the information re- 
 ceived from Gen. Townsend of the U. S. army 
 who addressed to them the following letter : 
 
 I am well persuaded that a plan of the nature pro- 
 posed by the Ladies' Association, would prove eminently 
 successful among the Pima Indians of Arizona. These 
 Indians have, for perhaps a hundred years or more, 
 abandoned nomadic life, and though a brave and fear- 
 less race, have for as many years been permanently locat- 
 ed upon the banks of the Gila river, relying for their sus- 
 tenance upon a rude culture of the soil. I passed 
 through their villages in 1849, and found them the 
 most interesting and friendly Indians I had yet en- 
 countered. They seemed to be gratified to have us 
 among them, and could scarcely do enough for us, and 
 for Indians, appeared already to be pretty well up in 
 the scale of civilization. 
 
 They have at various times since the occupation of 
 Arizona by our troops, furnished to the military com- 
 manders, large scouting parties for forays against the 
 Apaches, while yearly they supply the government 
 troops with all their surplus grain, and generally have 
 hitherto, in many ways, evinced their desire to cultivate 
 the most friendly relations with our people. I hail 
 with infinite satisfaction the generous efforts you have 
 made towards the establishment of a christian mission 
 among the Pimas. May God the Father of us all, 
 prosper your noble devotion and the great cause. 
 Believe me truly your friend, 
 
 FREDERICK TOWNSEND. 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 99 
 
 We entered into correspondence with Mr. 
 Cook, on learning of his employment as 
 teacher at the agency, and received from him 
 the following report of his first year's work : 
 
 School Report of Rev. C. H. Cook, Teacher. 
 
 U. S Indian Agency, Gila River Reservation, ) 
 December 30, 1871. j 
 
 
 
 
 Marl- 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 Mari- 
 
 
 
 
 Pimad 
 
 copaa. 
 
 1 
 
 Date. 
 
 Pima. 1 
 
 copas. 
 
 
 Date. 
 
 i»] o5 
 
 ffi 
 
 ni 
 
 
 
 f/i 
 
 
 _; 
 
 
 
 i-t 
 
 >. 
 
 
 
 >> 
 
 r 
 
 >. 
 
 
 J 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 CQ-ffl 
 
 84 
 
 19 
 
 fi2 
 
 
 n 
 
 13 
 
 
 1 
 
 n 
 
 24 
 
 16 
 
 H 
 
 December 
 
 1 
 
 13 
 
 6 
 
 December 13 
 
 53 
 
 
 4 
 
 9 
 
 
 10 
 
 H 
 
 27 
 
 14 
 
 14 
 
 7 
 
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 A year has nearly passed since our first endeavor to 
 open school here, and it is with thankfulness that we 
 acknowledge the aid vouchsafed by Providence, with- 
 out which our efforts would be but in vain. 
 
 Some of the obstacles we had to encounter have 
 gradually disappeared ; most of the necessary school 
 utensils have been supplied, and the Pima language has 
 been mastered to some extent. 
 
 Many of the scholars have made rapid progress in 
 reading, writing, arithmetic, English speaking and 
 singing. During the last half of the year, I have been 
 aided by the assistant teacher. 
 
 The Maricopa children do not understand the Pima 
 language ; the distance to their village (over four miles) 
 
lOO THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 has heretofore prevented their regular attendance ; it 
 was thought expedient to open a school here. The 
 school house, an Indian hut, was built by the Indians, 
 and serves for school, Sunday school and church. It 
 is, however, untenable in very cold and windy weather. 
 The children there, with few exceptions, and mostly 
 such as live farther away, attend regularly. I think 
 about $250 would enable us to build a suitable room 
 there, and the school as a branch school would cause 
 otherwise but little expense to the department. 
 
 The attendence at the agency has not been as large 
 and regular as last spring, owing partly to much sick- 
 ness that has prevailed, during which four scholars 
 have died. The Indians being somewhat superstitious, 
 all of the first village and others left their homes for a 
 number of weeks at a time. We have found it almost 
 impossible to secure a regular attendance here, especially 
 among the smaller scholars ; the distance to their 
 villages is from iX 'o 4J^ miles. With a school house 
 near the center of them, a much larger and more regular 
 attendance may be reasonably expected ; this would 
 also give us an opportunity for night school for adults, 
 and for Sunday school and other religious services, so 
 much needed. 
 
 Our thanks are due to friends of Chicago for sending 
 a supply of clothing and to some ladies of Philadelphia 
 who sent us a map. 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 C. H. COOK. 
 Under the policy instituted by President 
 Grant, the Indian agengies were placed unc^er 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. lOI 
 
 the care and supervision of the several chris- 
 tian denominations. The Indians on the Gila 
 River Reservation were assigned to the Re- 
 formed Church and the Board of Missions of 
 that church appointed Mrs. Stout missionary 
 teacher at the agency. 
 
 Mrs. Stout entered upon her work with zeal 
 and energy and soon after Mr. Cook's report 
 reached us, we received from her the follow- 
 ing letter : 
 
 Gila River Reservation, 
 April I, 1872. 
 
 Let me thank you for sending: "s the organ and things 
 for the children, which only arrived one week ago. The 
 organ is such a nice one and pleased the children so 
 much. It will be a great comfort to us also, for I don't 
 know what it is to live without some kind of a musical 
 instrument, or at least did not, until we came to Arizona. 
 I feel that words are inadequate to thank you for all 
 those things, and did I not know that God would abun- 
 dantly bless and prosper you for doing it unto even the 
 " least of these little ones," I should feel indeed that 
 you were poorly rewarded, but I feel so sure of a rich 
 reward for you, both in this world and in the world to 
 come, such as only they receive who work for His sake. 
 
 I shall commence a sewing school, day after tomorrow 
 and let the girls work on both boys' and girls' clothes, 
 but it will be such a few weeks until school closes, I 
 don't think they can finish them ; but it will, I think. 
 be an ipducement for them to attend school more regu- 
 
I02 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 larly. My class of girls are doing nicely. They learn 
 readily and seem very bright. It is very slow work, 
 however, and requires much patience. The school 
 improves every day, the children look more tidy and 
 take more interest. Dr. Bendell has just made us a 
 visit, together with Dr. Tonner of the Mohave agency, 
 and they were very much pleased. The superintendent 
 said he thought they had done well. Their singing 
 seemed to please him most. I think the Maricopas are 
 the best singers. The manner in which they talk enables 
 them to talk plainer English than the Pimas. The 
 position of teacher to the Indians is far different from 
 teaching in the states. The person selected for a teacher 
 here should be some one who is a faithful christian with 
 a great deal of patience and one who will be willing to 
 sacrifice all for the Lord's sake. 
 
 I remain, truly your friend, 
 
 Geokgia Stout. 
 
 We continued to aid and encourage the 
 mission while under the supervision of the 
 board of the Reformed Church, as many of 
 the members of our association were connected 
 with that church. On learning the needs of 
 the children in school, boxes of clothing were 
 made up and forwarded to the reservation, 
 which were gratefully received and an annual 
 report was returned to us by the United States 
 Indian agent, 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 103 
 
 The Reformed Church, however, being un- 
 able to sustain the mission on the Gila River 
 Reservation, resigned the charge to the United 
 States government and the responsibility was 
 assumed in the year 1881, by the Board of 
 Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church. 
 
 It is not to magnify our own humble efforts 
 in the beginning of this interesting mission, 
 that we now review a work, which has for the 
 last twelve years, been successfully prosecuted 
 by the Board of Home Missions of the 
 Presbyterian Church. 
 
 Our object is to show the importance of 
 individual effort in carrying the gospel to 
 the Indians of our own country. It is not 
 enough to make an annual contribution to 
 the treasury of the Board of Missions ; some 
 acquaintance should be had by the society 
 contributing to the support .of a mission, 
 with the working force on the ground ; as, 
 after the missionary's salary is raised, there 
 are many wants unprovided for, which if 
 supplied, would greatly aid the missionary in 
 his work, which, for the want of such aid, is 
 often hindered. 
 
I04 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 Could we have known that Mrs. Cook's life 
 was endangered by a leaky roof, how gladly 
 would we have removed this impediment to 
 the comfort and welfareof herself and family ! 
 But we had at that time, no knowledge of the 
 difficulties with which those self-denying 
 missionaries had to struggle ; humanly speak- 
 ing, that precious life was lost to the cause to 
 which it was consecrated, for the want of 
 what we could easily have supplied. 
 
 A brother missionary. Rev. I. T. Whitte- 
 more, writes of Mrs. Cook : " She was a 
 stranger to fear, a faithful mother, a noble 
 companion for the pioneer missionary, whom 
 God had chosen and fitted for his sphere of 
 duty. Her nameless and unmarked grave 
 as also that of one son sleeping by her side, 
 is in the rear of the church, and is pointed 
 out to the stranger who visits the now 
 bereaved missionary. Like a bird with a 
 broken wing, but with a heart rising superior 
 to all disappointments, he still labors on 
 zealously and patiently. His heart is glad- 
 dened by the fruits of his long service, as he 
 sees the Indians for whose spiritual welfare 
 he has diligently labored, coming out of 
 heathenism into the christian faith, and 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. I05 
 
 becoming members of the church of Christ." 
 But that unmarked grave ! After a few years 
 have passed and the toil-worn missionary- 
 shall have ceased from his work on earth, or 
 shall have been removed from his present 
 field of labor, shall it be said of the faithful 
 wife and mother, " No man knoweth of her 
 sepulchre ? " 
 
 Another consecrated life is just closed in 
 the death of Miss Susan L. McBeth, who has 
 left to the church and to the world a rich 
 legacy in her noble work among the Nez- 
 Perces Indians, showing what one woman, who 
 has her whole heart in the work, can do for a 
 tribe of Indians, where her ability is equal to 
 her zeal. 
 
 It is now more than twenty years since 
 Miss McBeth began her work among the Nez- 
 Perces Indians of Idaho. She formulated 
 and published a grammar of the Nez-Perces 
 language, (being a fine linguist), and under- 
 took the instruction and preparation for the 
 ministry of the young men of that tribe, many 
 of whom are now " proclaiming the unsearch- 
 able riches of Christ among their countrymen 
 
I06 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 and in their native tongue." She died May 
 26, 1893, and her sister writes : " We buried 
 her where she wished to be laid, down in the 
 Kamiah Valley, close to the little Indian 
 church she loved so well." 
 
 " The desire to do a good work and the 
 ability to accomplish it, constitute the ' Call.' ' 
 
 " There are living on the American conti- 
 nent at this time, from ten to twelve millions 
 of Indians. About three hundred thousand 
 Indians are in the United States and forty 
 thousand in Alaska. 
 
 The Indians of the United States are now 
 found in Dakota, Montana, Washington, New 
 Mexico, Arizona, California, the Indian Ter- 
 ritory and Idaho. There are also remnants 
 of once powerful tribes in the Eastern States. 
 
 There are over one hundred thousand gath- 
 ered on reservations,and ninety-eight thousand 
 have become self-supporting. In the Indian 
 Territory there are more than thirty-five thou- 
 sand not living on reservations. About fifty- 
 eight thousand of the whole Indian population 
 are receiving assistance from the government. 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. I07 
 
 In 1868, the government placed the appoint- 
 ment of Indian agents with the several Chris- 
 tian denominations, and in ten years, forty 
 thousand Indians besides those of the civilized 
 tribes, could read and write. It would cost 
 but three millions annually, to give every 
 Indian girl and boy in the United States a 
 good industrial and common school education. 
 
 It has cost the United States government 
 more than two hundred and seventy-three 
 millions of dollars in ten years to fight the 
 Indians, while five years' schooling of twenty 
 thousand children would cost but twenty-two 
 millions. There are now several government 
 schools for the Indians, one at Hampton, la.; 
 one at Carlisle, Penn., and there are also mis- 
 sion schools at Albuquerque, N. M., and at 
 Tucson and Phoenix, Arizona. 
 
 The school at Carlisle was begun in 1879 
 and owes its inception and success to the zeaj 
 and energy of Captain R. H. Pratt of the 
 U. S. Army. In his ' Historical Sketch of the 
 Indian Industrial School at Carlisle, Penn.,' 
 Captain Pratt says : ' The Carlisle school 
 had its origin in convictions that grew out of 
 eight years' Calvary service (1867 to 1875), 
 against the Indians in the Indian Territory,' 
 
Io8 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 I often commanded Indian scouts, took 
 charge of Indian prisoners and performed 
 other Indian duty, which led me to consider 
 the relative conditions of the two races. One 
 plain duty resting upon us with regard to the 
 Indians, is to assist them to die as helpless 
 tribes, and to rise up among us as strong and 
 capable individual men and American citizens. 
 These views led me to recommend to General 
 Sheridan in 1875, when sending to Florida 
 the Indian prisoners then under my care at 
 Fort Sill, I. T., that they should, while in 
 such banishment, be educated and trained in 
 civilized pursuits, and so far as practicable be 
 brought into relations with our own people- 
 Being detailed to conduct the prisoners to 
 Florida and to remain in care of them, I 
 established schools among them, and through 
 letting them go out as laborers, which they 
 very willingly did, and every other means that 
 offered or that I could contrive, I pressed 
 upon them American life and civilization. 
 The three years of their stay in Florida 
 wrought wonderful changes among them and 
 in the spring of 1878, when these prisoners 
 were released, twenty-two of the young men 
 were led to ask for more education and said 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. log 
 
 they would stay east three years longer if 
 they could go to school." 
 
 The money being provided by friends, 
 seventeen of the released prisoners were 
 placed in school at Hampton Institute, Va., 
 four near Utica, N. Y., and one at Tarrytown- 
 on-the- Hudson. The following year, Captain 
 Pratt was detailed by the secretary of war, 
 for special duty with reference to Indian 
 education. Thus, we see again the interest 
 evinced by an army officer in the welfare of 
 the Indian, culminating in a great educational 
 institution, where in the peaceful arts in which 
 the former enemies of our government are 
 now instructed, we have pleasing evidence 
 that " the sword has been beaten into a plough- 
 share, and the spear into a pruning-hook." 
 
 It is with great satisfaction that we learn 
 that officers of the U. S. Army are now 
 detailed as Indian agents, and that they will 
 henceforth be known as the friends and pro- 
 tectors of the tribes against whom they have 
 been sent to quell disturbances, and some- 
 times to engage in the bloody conflict. 
 
 Our correspondent at the Pima agency, in 
 a letter recently received, says: "Let our 
 
110 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 government put all of the Apache children 
 in school, and let some church send mission- 
 aries to the Apaches, and ere long, we shall 
 not need soldiers to protect us from the 
 Indians in Arizona," In another communi- 
 cation received from Mr. Cook, he says : " I 
 have found the U. S. Army officers nearly 
 always the friends of the missionary." He 
 also writes under date of August ii, 1891 : 
 " We have a prosperous government school 
 here, of about one hundred and thirty chil- 
 dren, another school at Tucson, with about 
 the same number of pupils. Then we have 
 about an hundred children at the Albu- 
 querque government school, and we expect to 
 have a school this autumn at Phoenix, Arizona, 
 about forty-five miles from here and about 
 twelve miles from the western boundary of 
 our reservation. We also expect to build 
 another chapel this fall, some twenty or more 
 miles west of here, where we already have 
 eight members. Perhaps you are aware that 
 the gospel and the schools are taking the 
 place of the army." 
 
 The report of the superintendent of Indian 
 schools, gives the following for 1892 : 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. Ill 
 
 IN SCHOOLS IN ARIZONA. 
 
 Pima Government School, 142 
 
 Tucson Presbyterial, 171 
 
 Phoenix Government School, 48 
 
 IN SCHOOLS OUTSIDE ARIZONA. 
 
 Albuquerque Government School, 105 
 
 Genoa, Nebraska, Government School,. . . 19 
 The above includes pupils from the three 
 tribes — Pimas, Maricopas and Papagoes. 
 
 " The first day school," vrrites Mr. Cook, 
 " among the Pima Indians, was opened Febru- 
 ary 15,1871. The pupils came from three small 
 Pima villages, two to three miles distant ; also 
 from a Maricopa village, about four and a 
 half miles from the agency. The children 
 were hungry and almost naked, so we gave 
 each of them a piece of bread for lunch. A 
 branch school was subsequently opened in a 
 Maricopa village, with Mrs. Cook as assistant- 
 At first, a large brush hut served for the school, 
 but afterwards a suitable room was built by 
 the government. The clothing sent by your 
 society, helped to clothe the children, and the 
 good Mason and Hamlin organ, aided much 
 in the English singing, in which the pupils 
 delighted. The school-house also often an- 
 
112 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 swered the purpose of a chapel, and on winter 
 evenings, the parents often met there to listen 
 to the gospel message. At one of the meet- 
 ings, an Indian asked if it was ' true that we 
 had immortal souls ? ' 
 
 Our preaching in the various villages on 
 Sundays, had the effect of awakening a desire 
 in the minds of the Indians for schools in all 
 of their villages; We have translated the first 
 chapters of Genesis, the Ten Command- 
 ments, some of the Psalms and several chap- 
 ters of the New Testament. We have built 
 two churches and a parsonage with only 
 Indian help, which has left us but little time 
 for the translation of the Bible into the Pima 
 language. We have now eighty-five church 
 members and expect an additional number 
 at our next communion. Our chapel will 
 seat three hundred persons, and we have 
 now a comfortable church home at a total 
 expense of $350. The organs at both 
 chapels are in good order and are doing good 
 service. One of the organs is played by one 
 of the girls of the Tucson school. We expect 
 to build a church this fall, some thirty-five 
 miles west of the agency, where we have 
 eight members. During the time of my ser- 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. I13 
 
 vice here, I have preached on Sundays in most 
 of the villages, often to large congregations. 
 With the help of the school boys during 
 vacation, we have translated parts of the 
 Bible into the Pima language. I send you a 
 copy of the Lord's Prayer in the Pima 
 language." 
 
 THE LORD'S PRAYER. 
 
 Ah-chim 't Aw-ock 
 
 tahm katch-im chirt 't ta, 
 
 se-atch-has-oe-lit moe choe-oe-kick. 
 
 Va to cheav-ia hoek near-noi-tam. 
 
 Va hap-o-chew et-e chue-wut ap 
 hoem taht-cho ha-po-mas-e-ma tahm 
 katch-im chirt hap-o-wah. 
 
 Et-e tars ap hie-a-chew hook t mahk. 
 
 Va-to stoy-e-kal pat t chew-ay-chick, 
 ha-po-mas-ay-ma n ah-chim stoy-i-kal 
 wu-es, ah-chim pe-ap hap- 
 e-chew. 
 
 Wu-es sah-po et wu-ay, 
 
 Wu-es hie-a-chew pe-a-po-kum wo 
 e-wuh-sit. 
 
 Wu-e-he-chit ah-pe map-o-ot te- 
 nah-to-kam, koe-ve-ki-tuck oe-ni-ka, 
 choep hoe-kick-ka-lick wu-e-he-chit 
 ssoell. Amen. 
 
114 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 About 8,000 Indians speak the Pima lan- 
 guage. The Pimas number about 4,000 ; 
 the Yuacharties, 750 ; Papagoes, 3,250. The 
 Apaches speak a different language. 
 . The Lord hasten the time when every 
 Indian on this continent shall hear in his 
 own tongue, the glad message brought to the 
 Shepherds on the plains of Bethlehem : " Be- 
 hold I bring you good tidings of great joy, 
 which shall be to all people ; for unto you is 
 born in the city of David, a Saviour which is 
 Christ the Lord." 
 
t) 
 
 H 
 Q 
 2 
 
 K 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Gila River Reservation — Climate, Soil, 
 Productions and Ancient Ruins. 
 
 The climate of southern Arizona is one of 
 the most healthful in this country. During 
 the summer, the heat, though intense, is by no 
 means unendurable. It is far more tolerable 
 when the mercury is at 105° to 1 10° than when, 
 in the east or north, the thermometer stands 
 at 90°. Seldom does a thunder storm from 
 the mountains, reach this region, or a cyclone 
 bring destruction to the fields and dwellings. 
 There are no instances of sun-stroke and the 
 sand storms which occasionally sweep through 
 the valley soon pass, and without damage to 
 the fields or crops. In winter, no chilling 
 winds or poisonous blasts are to be dreaded, 
 but perpetual sunshine lights up the land- 
 scape and invites the invalid to this balmy 
 atmosphere. 
 
 The soil is exceedingly fertile ; it needs 
 only good cultivation and plenty of water for 
 irrigation ; the sun will do the rest. The Gila 
 river is capable of furnishing an abundant 
 supply of water, when, in addition to the 
 
Il6 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 large amount furnished by the Florence canal 
 (the only canal in this valley), and a large 
 reservoir fifteen miles south of Florence, 
 a dam shall be constructed at Buttes, fourteen 
 miles east of the town. This will furnish water 
 sufficient for many of the Indian villages, 
 besides irrigation for 250,000 acres more than 
 the canal novsr furnishes. 
 
 The Pima or Gila river reservation is the 
 largest of the four reservations (belonging 
 to the Pimas, Papagoes and Maricopas) of 
 the Pima Agency. 
 
 It is about forty-five miles long and four- 
 teen miles wide, and is situated on the Gila 
 river. The valley proper averages two miles 
 in width and the land is very rich. The only 
 difficulty in making it productive and fruit- 
 ful, is the want of sufficient water for pur- 
 poses of irrigation. Nearly all kinds of grain 
 and vegetables, as well as nearly all the citric 
 and other fruits of a semi-tropical climate, are 
 produced in the rich valley of the Gila river. 
 With a full supply of water to irrigate their 
 farms, these Indians will soon be entirely 
 self-supporting. 
 
 Fourteen miles east of the Pima Agency 
 is the famous Ruin of Casa Grande. 
 
THE tIMA INDIAN MISSION. 117 
 
 This ruin is one of the deepest studies for 
 the antiquarian and ethnologist and is 
 among the best preserved of the pre-historic 
 remains in our country. It was old when 
 Columbus discovered this " New World," and 
 is supposed to have been erected by the 
 unknown race of civilized people who once 
 inhabited this valley. It is an object of curi- 
 osity to the traveler, though of the hands that 
 built it and for what purpose it was erected, 
 we have now no knowledge. Its massive 
 walls were built of a peculiar concrete of 
 unknown ingredients, which differs greatly 
 from the materials used by any of the Indian 
 tribes of the south-west ; and its interior was 
 finished with a smooth coat of cement that 
 has successfully withstood the ravages of 
 time. It was evidently a handsome and 
 imposing edifice, of six or eight stories high ; 
 but beyond this fact all is shrouded in 
 mystery. 
 
 This ruin was first discovered in 1540, when 
 the walls were four stories high and six feet 
 in thickness. Around it were many other 
 ruins, with portions of their walls yet standing, 
 which would go to prove that a city of no 
 inconsiderable dimensions once existed here. 
 
Il8 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 As showing its great antiquity, it is mentioned 
 that the Pima Indians, who then, (154°) as 
 now, were living in the immediate vicinity, 
 had no knowledge of the origin or history of 
 the structure, or the people who built it In 
 the immediate vicinity, the traces of an 
 immense irrigating canal have been followed 
 to the Gila river, forty miles distant. This 
 canal, no doubt, brought water to the city and 
 irrigated the rich valley which surrounds the 
 river. 
 
 Sphinx-like, the mysterious ruin stands 
 amid the solitude of the desert plain, while 
 from its weather beaten crest, voiceless cen- 
 turies look down upon the curious inquirer. 
 
 The review of twenty-five years brings to 
 our memory an incident, which is not irrelevant 
 to the subject of " missions of christian women 
 to the Indians." 
 
 It was in the beginning of our mission 
 work for the tribes of Indians, commended 
 to our sympathy and Christian effort by 
 officers of the United States Army, that 
 one evening, at the house of the president 
 of our association, with whom we were then 
 in consultation, a good elder of the Presby- 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. Up 
 
 terian Church called and introduced to us, 
 the Rev. H. H. Spaulding of Oregon. The 
 venerable missionary was on the way to his 
 old home at the east, after an absence of 
 thirty-four years. He had come to vindicate 
 the good name of his associate, Dr. Marcus 
 Whitman, the martyr missionary, and to erase, 
 if possible, from the records of congress, the 
 false statements published under what pur- 
 ported to be "an account of the murder of 
 Dr. Whitman." 
 
 Under date December i, 1870, the fol- 
 lowing account of the visit of the veteran 
 missionary appeared in the same weekly jour- 
 nal which had given not Idng before, a place 
 in its columns to the appeal for a teacher for 
 the Pima Indians, to which we have already 
 referred. The writer says under the heading, 
 " An Evening with an Old Missionary : " 
 
 "One day last week a man of humble appear- 
 ance, about seventy years of age, called at 
 our office and was introduced by a stranger, 
 as the Rev. H. H. Spaulding of Oregon. We 
 had heard something of his labors as a mis- 
 sionary among the Indians in that region and 
 were glad to take the veteran by the hand. 
 
I20 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 The few words we could then have together, 
 led us to press him to share our hospitalities 
 for the night, which he accepted. 
 
 " Dr. Whitman's wife and mine," said the 
 missionary, as we drew up our chairs about 
 the study table, and opened our " Colton " to 
 the right map, " were the first white women 
 that ever crossed the Rocky Mountains." 
 " But how came you to go ?" we asked. 
 
 And then for four hours of the rarest 
 interest, we listened to the wondrous story 
 of 
 
 "THE MACEDONIAN NEZ-PERCES." 
 
 About their council fire, in solemn conclave, 
 it was in the year 1832, the Flat-Heads and 
 Nez-Perces had determined "to send four of 
 their number to the rising sun for " that 
 book from heaven." They had got word of 
 the Bible and a Saviour, in some way, from 
 the Iroquois. These four dusky wise men, 
 one of them a chief, who had thus dimly 
 " seen His star in the east," made their way 
 to St. Louis ; and it is significant of the perils 
 of this thousand miles journey, that only one 
 of them survived to return. They fell into 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 121 
 
 the hands of an explorer who had traveled 
 extensively in the regions of the Columbia 
 river. How utterly he failed to meet their 
 wants is revealed in the sad words with which 
 they departed, •' I came to you " — and the 
 survivor repeated the words years afterwards 
 to Mr. Spaulding — " with one eye partly 
 opened. I go back with both eyes closed 
 and both arms broken. My people sent me 
 to obtain that book from heaven. 
 
 I am now to return without it, and my people 
 will die in darkness." And so they took 
 their leave. But this sad lament was over- 
 heard. A young man wrote it to his friends 
 in Pittsburgh. Then showed the account to 
 Catlin, of Indian portrait fame, who had just 
 come from the Rocky Mountains. He said, 
 " It cannot be ; those Indians were in our 
 company, and I heard nothing of this ; wait 
 till I write to Clark before you publish it." 
 He wrote ; the response was, " It is true." 
 That was the sole object of their visit, — " To 
 get the Bible." Then Catlin said, " Give it 
 to the world." The Methodists at once com- 
 missioned Rev. Mr. Lee to go and find this 
 tribe, who had so strangely broken out of 
 their darkness toward the light. 
 
122 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 Dr. Marcus Whitman, of the American 
 board who was too late for the overland 
 caravan for that summer, followed the next 
 year. He found the Nez-Perces. But so 
 fearful were the ridges and the ravines of the 
 path to them, and so wild the country where 
 they roamed, that he pushed on to the tribes 
 living near the coast. 
 
 WOMAN'S HEROISM. 
 
 It was with great joy the Nez-Perces wel- 
 comed Whitman the next year. Having 
 explored the situation, and taking with him 
 two boys which the Indians had placed in 
 his hands, as hostages, in some sort, for his 
 return, he went back for his intended wife and 
 to secure others for the work. But who 
 would go ? Men could be found, but where 
 was the woman willing to brave the vague 
 horrors of that howling wilderness ? His 
 betrothed consented. But an associate and 
 he, a married man, must be obtained. More 
 than a score of most devoted ones were 
 applied to in vain. Friends said it is madness 
 to make the attempt. For that country and 
 the way between, in the popular impression) 
 was a dark unknown, full of terrors. 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 123 
 
 A year was spent in the search for associ- 
 ates, and then light came from an unexpected 
 quarter. In the early spring or 1836, a sleigh, 
 extemporized from a wagon, was craunching 
 through the deep snows of Western New 
 York. In it were Rev. Mr. Spaulding and his 
 wife. They were on their way, under com- . 
 mission of the American board, to the Osage 
 Indians. Mrs. Spaulding had started from 
 a bed of lingering illness and was then able 
 to walk less than a quarter of a mile. Dr. 
 Whitman, having heard of the rare courage 
 of this woman, by permission of the board 
 started in pursuit. 
 
 " We want you for -Oregon," was the hail 
 with which he overtook them. 
 
 " How long will the journey take ? " 
 
 " The summers of two years." 
 
 " What convoy will we have ? "■ 
 
 " The American Fur Company, to the 
 Divide." 
 
 " What shall we have to live on ? " 
 
 " Buffalo meat, till we can raise our own 
 grain." 
 
 " How shall we journey ? " 
 
 " On horse-back." 
 
 " How cross the rivers ? " 
 
 " Swim them." 
 
144 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 After this brief dialogue, and we give it 
 precisely in the missionary's own words, Mr. 
 Spaulding turned to his wife and said, " My 
 dear, my mind is made up. It is not your 
 duty to go ; but we will leave it to you after 
 we have prayed." 
 
 By this time they had reached a wayside 
 inn, in the town of Howard, N. Y. Taking 
 a private room, they each prayed in turn and 
 then Mrs. Spaulding was left to herself. In 
 about ten minutes she appeared with a beam ■ 
 ing face, and said, " I have made up my mind 
 to go." 
 
 " But your health, my dear ! " 
 
 " / like the command just as it stands, ' Go 
 ye into all the world,' and no exception for poor 
 healthy 
 
 " But the perils in your weak condition — 
 you don't begin to think how great they are." 
 
 " The dangers of the way and the weakness 
 of my body are His ; duty is mine." 
 
 " But the Indians will take you prisoner. 
 They are frantic for such captives. You will 
 never see your friends again." And the 
 strong man broke down, giving vent to the 
 anguish of his soul in a flood of tears. 
 
 Was it the wife who answered, or was it a 
 voice from the old time ? 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 125 
 
 "What mean ye to weep and to break 
 mine heart ? for I am ready, not to be bound 
 only, but also to die at Jerusalem," or in the 
 Rocky Mountains, " for the name of the Lord 
 Jesus." 
 
 " Then," said the veteran, with a charming 
 simplicity, " I had to come to it, I didn't know 
 anything." 
 
 " Well, you were crazy," we interposed," to 
 think of such a journey and she so weak." 
 
 " We were, but God meant to have us go. 
 He wanted to have an emigration go across 
 the mountains, and this was the way He took 
 to start it." 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Spaulding continued their 
 journey and Whitman sending forward to his 
 bride to be ready, went back for his Indian 
 boys— they were then about sixteen years old 
 — and pressed on after them. There was a 
 hasty wedding by the way, and then the 
 bridal tour began. 
 
 But the strife of parting was not yet over. 
 
 At Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, St. Louis, all 
 along the way, hands were stretched out to 
 hold them back. Catlin at Pittsburgh, assured 
 them they could not take women through. 
 The hostile Indians that hover about th^ 
 
126 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 convoy, would fight against any odds to cap- 
 ture them. One woman had tried it, but the 
 company was massacred, and she was dragged 
 away and never heard of again. Mrs. Spauld- 
 ing was especially beset with these tales of 
 horror. "But," said the husband with an 
 honest pride, " it did not move her a hair." 
 
 A SUNDAY ON SHORE. 
 
 The party took boats at Pittsburgh. Satur- 
 day night found them between Cairo and St. 
 Louis. Mrs. Spaulding, who seems to have 
 had a good share, both of the courage and the 
 conscience of the company, insisted that they 
 should be put on shore to spend Sunday. 
 The captain and the passengers laughed at 
 her scruples. " But," she said, " out on the 
 plains we shall be at the mercy of the Fur 
 Company, and must go on. Here we can 
 stop." 
 
 " But no boat will ever call at such an out- 
 of-the-way place as this, to 'take you off." 
 
 " We'll take the chances of that. Put us 
 on shore. The New England home mission- 
 ary marked that day in white, which brought 
 such a rare accession to his little meeting in 
 the school house, tie gaid it was like an 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. I27 
 
 angel's visit. Early Monday morning, a 
 great puffing was heard below, and a grand 
 steamer, better than the one they had left, 
 rounded to, at their signal, and took them 
 on board. Fifty miles above they overtook 
 the other boat, hopelessly stranded on a sand 
 bar. 
 
 At St. Louis, the missionaries found the 
 American Fur Company fitting out their an- 
 nual expedition for the mountains, but as the 
 two wives were of the party, they could not 
 have secured a place in the caravan, had not 
 Whitman been in special favor by his services 
 rendered the year before, when he rendered 
 invaluable aid on the breaking out of the 
 cholera in the camp and through his skill and 
 tact restored order and stayed the pestilence. 
 Having secured the company's pledge, they 
 pressed on by boat to Liberty Landing. Here 
 Spaulding purchased mules — wild, he found 
 them — fifteen or twenty horses, as many cows 
 and two wagons, not forgetting a quart of seed 
 wheat. With this retinue, he started for Coun- 
 cil Bluffs, while Whitman waited with the 
 women and the goods for the company's boat. 
 After some days that boat passed, purposely 
 leaving them behind. Through this bad 
 
128 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 faith, he was obliged to send forward to Spauld- 
 ing for horses,and to overtake him, as he could, 
 by land. This part of the trip was peculiarly 
 trying. Spaulding especially, who for his 
 wife's sake, was not yet altogether happy in 
 going, seemed to be the sport of a very ill 
 fortune. A tornado scattered his cattle, swept 
 away his tent, tore his blankets from him while 
 suffering from ague, and left him to be 
 drenched by the rain. 
 
 It did not help the case any to learn, when 
 they were within twenty-five miles of Council 
 Bluffs, that the Fur Company's convoy had 
 started, and were already five and a half days 
 out on the plains. 
 
 " 'Twas a poor chance," said the narrator, 
 " for us greenhorns. They were old trappers 
 with fresh horses, while our teams were already 
 jaded." And I said^for I was terribly sick — 
 " we can't overtake them, we shall have to go 
 back." But my wife constantly affirmed, " I 
 have started for the Rocky Mountains and I 
 expect to go there !" 
 
 And now commenced a series of marked in- 
 terpositions. It was pure faith and not sight 
 at all to push on after that cavalcade. The 
 trappers evidently designed to keep ahead, and 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 1 29 
 
 induce the missionaries to turn back. But to 
 secure the protection of the convoy was 
 indispensable. 
 
 " It was a desperate race," said the mis- 
 sionary, kindling at the remembrance, " but 
 we won it. They had to halt and fill up 
 ravines and make roads. This detained them 
 four days. After various detentions, at Soup 
 Fork, still four other days were lost in find- 
 ing the ford, and drying their goods, wet in 
 crossing. Meanwhile, we were pressing on 
 behind and the Lord helped us. The day 
 before we reached Soup Fork, we rode from 
 daylight till two o'clock at night. One horse 
 broke down and was turned loose, and my 
 wife fainted by the way. A signal gun at 
 the ford brought answer from the other side 
 and we camped. The convoy started early 
 in the morning, but left a man to show us 
 across, and late that night, we missionaries 
 filed into their camp and took the place 
 reserved for us, two messes west of the 
 captain's tent, and so we won the race by 
 two lengths ! " Once among them, nothing 
 could exceed the kindness of the men. The 
 choicest buffalo morsels were always kept for 
 our ladies, but now, sick or well, we had to 
 
130 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 go on. We were two hundred souls and six 
 hundred animals. Every thing was in the 
 strictest military order, for hostile Indians 
 continually hovered on our flanks. At night, 
 we camped with the animals solid in the 
 center. The tents and wagons were disposed 
 around them, and outside of all, sentinels 
 marched their steady round. Each day, two 
 hunters and two packers went out for Buffalo. 
 Each night, save when we had lost the way, 
 they overtook us at the appointed camp with 
 four mule loads of meat. This was our only 
 subsistence." 
 
 " Did they never fail to find game ?" 
 
 " Yes, once or twice, and then we had to go 
 hungry." 
 
 On the 6th of June, we were at Fort Laramie. 
 Wife was growing weaker and weaker. 
 
 " You must stay here," said the captain ; 
 " Mrs. Spaulding will die for want of bread." 
 
 " No," said she, " I started to go over the 
 mountains in the name of my Saviour, and I 
 must go on." 
 
 July fourth, they entered the South Pass. 
 Mrs. Spaulding fainted that morning and she 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. I3I 
 
 herself thought she was about to die. As they 
 laid, her upon the ground she said : " Don't 
 put me on that horse again. Leave me and 
 save yourselves. Tell mother I am glad I 
 came." 
 
 But the caravan stopped on the "divide" and 
 sent back for her and she was borne on. She 
 soon revived and three hours afterward they 
 saw the waters trickling toward the Pacific. 
 And there — it was Independence Day — they, 
 alighting from their horses and kneeling on 
 the western slope of the continent, with the 
 Bible in one hand and our national flag in the 
 other, took possession of it as the home of 
 American mothers and of the church of 
 Christ. 
 
 Just beyond, was the great mountain ren- 
 dezvous, the end of the convoy's route, a kind 
 of neutral ground where multitudes of Indians 
 were gathered for trade. There were rough 
 mountaineers there, who had not seen a white 
 woman since they had left the homes of their 
 childhood. Some of them came to meet the 
 missionaries and wept as they took their wives 
 by the hand. " From that day," said one of 
 
132 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 them, " I was a better man." But best of all, 
 here met them a greeting party of the Nez- 
 Perces. '' They were the happiest men you 
 ever saw." Their women took possession of 
 Mrs. Spaulding and the gladness they showed, 
 not less than the biscuit-root and the trout 
 with which they fed her, revived her spirit. 
 From that hour she began to mend ; and 
 from that hour, her future and theirs were 
 one. Ten days of rest here, and the journey 
 was resumed. The remainder of the way, if 
 shorter, was no less perilous and they had 
 asked in dismay, " What shall we do for a 
 convoy ? " But God took care of them. He 
 sent an English trading company to the ren- 
 dezvous that year — an unusual thing — and 
 with them, they completed their journey. It 
 was the twenty-ninth of November when they 
 reached the Columbia river. They had left 
 civilization the 21st of May, a long journey, 
 but not the trip of two summers to which they 
 had made up their minds. 
 
 And now they were at home, amid a nation 
 that had no homes ;, they had found a resting- 
 place among restless wanderers. But faith 
 had become sight — the first battle had been 
 fought and won. White women had coin§ 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 133 
 
 safely over the mountains ; cattle and horses 
 had been kept secure from Indian raiders ; a 
 wagon had been brought through, " the first 
 wheel that had ever pressed the sage." 
 
 Whitman had demonstrated to himself that 
 an emigration could cross from Missouri to 
 Oregon ; and when, six years afterward, he 
 led a company of a thousand along the same 
 track, he demonstrated it to the world, and 
 saved Oregon, and with it California, to the 
 United States. 
 
 The old missionary's story is not half told, 
 but we must cut it short. Whitman took the 
 Cayuses at Waiilatpu, near Walla Walla ; 
 Spaulding camped 120 miles farther up the 
 Snake river, among the Nez-Perces. He 
 found a people without a hoe or plow, or hoof 
 of cattle ; savages, who feasted when the hunt 
 was good,but starved through the long winters. 
 Eleven years afterward they were settled in 
 homes ; their crops of grain had reached from 
 20,000 to 30,000 bushels a year. The cows 
 which the missionaries brought,had multiplied 
 for the Indians into numerous herds ; gardens 
 and orchards were planted ; the sheep, which 
 the Sandwich Islanders gave them, had grown 
 to flocks. In the school which Mrs. Spauld- 
 ing taught were five hundred pupils ; a church 
 
134 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 of a hundred n^^bers had been gathered. 
 The languagCjO^thS people had been reduced 
 to writing, .^^ptriarchal government with a 
 code of laws had been established ; the Sab- 
 bath was observed. Upon the first printing 
 press west of the mountains, and that pre- 
 sented to the mission by the native church at 
 Honolulu, (the type-setting, press-work and 
 binding done by the missionary's own hand) 
 were printed a few school books, the native 
 code of laws, a small collection of hymns, and 
 the gospel of Matthew. 
 
 And then came the terrible martyrdom of 
 Dr. Whitman. Spaulding, visiting him at 
 the time, fled for his life to his faithful Nez- 
 Perces. Six days he was without food, feel- 
 ing his way, sore-footed, by night, and hiding 
 when the dawn appeared. 
 
 There was a hasty gathering of the house- 
 hold, a journey of two hundred miles to the 
 settlements in mid-winter, and the mission 
 came to an end. Almost blind himself, and 
 broken in constitution, he watched for many 
 months by the bed-side of his wife, dying from 
 that exposure — watched till she passed 
 through the river to the Celestial Mountains 
 and the Land beyond. 
 
 " The dead are there where rolls the Oregon." 
 
THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 1 35 
 
 But again the " blood of the martyrs " 
 proved " the seed of the church." Eventually, 
 Mr. Spaulding returned to his loved field of 
 labor among the faithful Nez-Perces and from 
 a young missionary, consecrated to that work 
 two years after the interview which we have 
 described, we received a most interesting let- 
 ter, in which is the following, under date Nez- 
 Perces, Indian Reserve, Aug. 6, 1872 : 
 
 " I can only write now of the topic which I 
 think will most interest you : The election of 
 this people to the brotherhood in the kingdom 
 of God's dear son. Of our revered Brother 
 Spaulding's early labors and sacrifices among 
 them, and the martrydom of his angel wife 
 you have undoubtedly heard. But though the 
 exile of Brother Spaulding from his beloved 
 people continued through a period of twenty- 
 four years, the light did not all go out. 
 Through the long twenty-four years, the voice 
 of prayer did not cease, nor were the hymns 
 and the translated passages of Scripture laid 
 aside, but were sacredly kept and used." 
 
 The noble policy of President Grant 
 restored to them again, their beloved pastor, 
 and the seed which he had sown in tears, so 
 many years before, now seemed to need but 
 
136 THE PIMA INDIAN MISSION. 
 
 his presence (as the warmth of the sun) to 
 cause it to spring up and " bring forth fruit 
 abundantly." 
 
 On his return to his field of labor at Lap- 
 wai, a new generation met him (only eighteen 
 of his former church being left); but the 
 fathers had taught the children to watch and 
 pray for the return of their old pastor, and 
 they received him and the word of life which 
 he spoke, with an eager welcome. Within one 
 week, over eighty were added to the church, 
 and the great work went on. 
 
 There are already two old men and seven 
 young men, who preach acceptably in the 
 native language. We aim at the conversion 
 of the whole tribe, which numbers nearly three 
 thousand." 
 
 In taking leave of our readers, if any 
 apology should seem necessary for bringing to 
 them our personal reminiscences, we can only 
 say that the story of the two missions which 
 we have related, it is hoped may be blessed 
 of God to the " sending forth laborers into 
 his harvest."