six dead; the wounded, including Sarcillo Largo, escaped. The command captured fifty horses and a large number of robes, blankets, etc. All they could not carry off they piled upon the wheat stalks near the houses, and burned. The Indians neither killed nor wounded any of the soldiers, due to their being unaccustomed to firearms. With their bows and arrows they certainly would have inflicted more injury. The Indians had just purchased their arms for war with the Americans, and were ignorant of their use. These arms were supposed to have been furnished by the Mormons, whose settlements joined those of the Navajos on the northwest. September 20th, 1859, Captain J. G. Walker reported from Fort Defiance that he had met a party of Pah-Utes, eighty miles west of the Canyon de Chelly, while exploring the San Juan River, who said that they had been sent out to invite the Navajos to a great council of Indians, at the Sierra Panoche, for the purpose of a union against the Americans. Sierra Panoche is a mountain southwest of the Calabasa Range, and eighty miles east of the Colorado River. The Mormons had agreed to furnish all needed arms and ammunition for a general war against the United States. Captain Walker says: "That this report is substantially true I have every reason to believe, as the Pah-Utahs to confirm their story, exhibited several presents from the Mormons, such as new shirts, beads, powder, etc. I was further confirmed in this opinion by meeting, the next day, a deputation of Navajos on their way to Sierra Panoche, to learn the truth of these statements, which had been conveyed to them by a Pah-Utah whom I saw in the Canyon de Chelly afterwards, who had been sent as a special envoy from the Mormons to the Navajos. He had in his possession a letter from a Mormon bishop or elder, stating that the bearer was an exemplary and regularly baptized member of the church of the Latter-Day Saints.' This report was confirmed by the Indian agent at Fort Defiance, the Indians in that vicinity having been visited for the same purpose, during Walker's absence, by an Indian who said, the Mormons had baptized him into their church, and given him a paper certifying that he was a Latter-Day Saint, and a good man." On the 29th Colonel Miles, with another scouting party of three hundred men, again entered the field. The first day, in the Chusca Valley, about twenty miles northeast of the fort, they captured nine horses and one thousand sheep. On the 30th a detachment of 126 men, under Captain Lindsay, was sent back to the camp of Ka-ya-ta-na's band on a laguna fifteen miles distant. The detachment reached their destination about three o'clock in the morning and found the place deserted. The detachment followed on the trail of the Indians, and, at daybreak, discovered them in a deep canyon, the descent to which was very difficult. As the soldiers were making their way down in single file, the foremost having just gained the bottom, three Indians rode up. With exclamations of astonishment and alarm, they turned and fled to warn their people. However, about a dozen men succeeded in reaching the bottom, and, with this handful, Captain Lindsay charged down the canyon. After a hard ride of five miles, they suc ceeded in overtaking the Indians and headed off their stock, amounting to seventy horses and four thousand sheep. On a wooded knoll in the canyon, Captain Lindsay held the stock with his handful of men until the remainder of his command came up. The property in the camp which had been deserted, consisting of blankets, robes, and other supplies, was all destroyed. In this action the Indians lost eight men killed; the troops four men killed, and one wounded. A series of expeditions were kept up, giving the Indians no time to rest. On October 4th, Major Brooks conveyed a number of trains towards Albuquerque, and circled through the Navajo country from Ojo del Gallo, in the western edge of the Rio Grande Valley. They had one engagement with the Indians in which 25 of the Indians were reported killed or badly wounded. On the morning of the 17th, 300 mounted Navajos attacked the post herd. They succeeded in killing two men and driving away sixty horses and mules. On the 18th Colonel Miles started in pursuit with a force of 250 soldiers and 160 volunteer Indians. The Indians were to be paid by a small ration and whatever they could capture, and their cupidity prevented a general engagement with the Navajos, but one hundred horses were captured from Manuelita's band, and their houses were destroyed. Lieutenant Howland, with 20 soldiers and forty of Blas Lucero's Mexicans, on the 23rd marched south from the fort to Colites Mountain. He surprised the ranch of the chief, Ter-ri-bo, next morning, capturing 16 women and children, four men, including Ter-ri-bo, ten horses and twenty goats and sheep. An extensive expedition was then planned and was being carried out, when the Navajos sued for peace, and, on the 4th of December, an armistice was granted that gave the Navajos an opportunity to treat. A treaty was made, with satisfactory conditions to all parties on the 25th of December, 1858. Eastern and southern limits of the territory of the Navajo nation were fixed which they were not to pass, except that Sandoval and his band retained their former location. Under this treaty, they were to make restitution and indemnification for depredations on citizens and Pueblo Indians, since August, 1858, by returning the property taken, or its equivalent in domestic animals, and for the future, the entire tribe was to be held responsible for the wrongs committed by any of its members, and reprisals were to be made from any flocks if satisfaction was not promptly given. Mexican, Pueblo and Navajo captives were to be surrendered if they desired to return to their own people. The surrender of the assassin of the negro boy Jim, was waived, it being represented that he had fled the country and was beyond their control. The right of the United States to establish military rule within Navajo territory was recognized, and, finally, the Navajos were urged to establish a form of government, either under a head chief, or some central power, which could act in all matters for the tribe. This treaty lasted nearly five months, but was broken before the Senate of the United States could ratify it. This closes, for the present, the invasions of the Navajo territory by the Americans. The next occurred several years later, and will be treated later on in this history. CHAPTER XIX. EARLY SETTLEMENTS AND FIRST ATTEMPTS AT SURVEY AND LOCATION OF TOWN OF YUMA ESTABLISHMENT OF FORTS MOHAVE AND BRECKENRIDGE TUCSON - NEW MEXICO The town of Yuma was surveyed in 1854, one year after the sale of the territory embraced in the Gadsden Purchase had been agreed upon between the two governments. In reference to this survey, Colonel C. D. Poston, in an article printed in the Overland Monthly, July, 1894, says: "As the geography of the country was not well understood at the time, it was not presumably |