OCT 28 1902

CAMBRIDGE, MASS

THE

UNITED SERVICE.

Edited bY L. R. HAMERSLY.

MAY, 1902.

THE CAPTIVE'S CHOICE.

By Lieutenant-Colonel H. R. BRINKERHOFF, U. S. A.

THE vast region of mountain country acquired by the United States from Mexico in 1848, was peopled at the time of the cession by wandering savages, including the Navajo Apaches, then as now, the most powerful and warlike tribe of aborigines on the American continent.

At the time of the cession this great tribe of nomads occupied an immense territory of plain and mountain country, extending from Ojo del Oso, at the base of the Zuni mountains, northward to the San Juan, and westward to the country of the Moqui Pueblos.

Over this vast area these nomadic people wandered restlessly about in small communities or clans, consisting usually of the father and sons with their families.

One of these clans at the time of the cession, and for many years thereafter, was under the chieftainship of Nashwegan, an old patriarch in the nation, who had with him in the little community over which he presided, his three wives and their children, his two married sons with their wives and children, and Milwanee, a distant relative, with his wives and children. The horses and sheep of these different families were branded and marked by symbols that distinguished their ownership, and were all kept together in common herds and flocks and guarded alternately by their several owners.

The herds and flocks in Nashwegan's clan were large, and frequent changes of location were necessary that water and grass might be obtained for the animals. During the year of the Treaty more difficulty than usual was experienced in finding water and desirable grazing grounds on account of an uncommonly protracted period VOL. I. T. S.-No. 5.

29

of drouth, and Nashwegan after many failures to find pastures that would keep his herds and flocks from starving, ventured into the well-watered and rich grazing lands lying along the northern base of the Zuni mountains, between the country of the Navajos and the Rio Grande River.

It was an imprudent venture in view of the fact that the country into which the old patriarch had gone, constituted at the time a neutral territory into which the Navajos rarely entered with their animals and families, on account of the war then in progress between the nation and the Mexican people living in the Rio Grande Valley.

For many years prior to this time the Navajos had maintained a state of hostility towards these people, and organized raiding parties of warriors had been accustomed at irregular intervals to sweep down upon the Mexican settlements to capture horses for their herds, and children for servants in their hogans.

The Mexicans in turn, had occasionally organized expeditions to raid the Indian country, and as a rule had been successful in capturing horses and sheep for their herds and flocks, and Navajo children for peons in their families.

Between the raids of the organized bodies of Mexicans and Navajos, small parties of warriors had almost constantly lurked about the Mexican settlements seeking opportunities to rob and murder. These small parties had been accustomed to secrete themselves for days at a time, when necessary, near the settlements to which they had gone, and had patiently waited and watched for the opportunities they desired. The greater the privations and sufferings they endured from hunger and thirst while they waited and watched on these occasions, the greater the praise they received on their return to their people with their booty. The incentive therefore to enter upon these small expeditions had been great, and many of them had been undertaken by the Navajo warriors for the glory and honor that attended success, rather than for the booty that might possibly be obtained.

Sometimes a small party of Mexicans and Americans together had ventured into the Indian country, and hanging upon the skirts of wandering Navajo clans had seized upon opportunities to stampede herds, or run off choice horses.

The Navajos had always been accustomed to live in an almost constant state of readiness to enter upon the pursuit of raiding parties that ventured into their country, and but a few moments ever elapsed after the presence of a party of their enemies had become known before pursuit or resistance was inaugurated. It had there

fore been a rare occurrence for a raiding party to enter their country without being compelled to fight its way out.

The Mexicans, on the contrary, had never been prepared to resist or to pursue. They had always depended upon walled enclosures and bolts and bars for security, and when these had been overcome by Navajo raiders some time usually elapsed before pursuit by an organized force was accomplished. The Indians were acquainted with every trail that led over the mountains that lay between their country and the Rio Grande Valley, and when their raiding parties had once gained the foot hills with captured horses and children, further pursuit by the Mexicans was practically useless.

But a short time before Nashwegan had ventured into the neutral country between the region inhabited by the Navajos and the Rio Grande Valley, two Navajo warriors left their hogans in Cañon Bonito and proceeded on foot on an expedition into the valley in the neighborhood of Las Lunas, a Mexican settlement famous for the fine herds of horses it possessed.

As the warriors descended the wooded side of the mountain overlooking the Rio Grande Valley in the afternoon of the fifth day after leaving their homes, they suddenly found themselves practically surrounded by wood gatherers from the settlement, engaged at the moment in loading their donkeys and carts with the fuel they had collected in the forest during the day. Springing aside from the trail they had followed down the mountain they hastened to conceal themselves in a tangle of vines and cactus plants that had sprung up in the bushy top of a fallen hemlock tree that lay near the trail. They remained in this concealment until near midnight, when they ventured once more to follow the trail, and slowly made their way down into the valley. As they groped along in the darkness guided by the lights they could discern burning in the Mexican habitations before them, they came at length upon a deep ditch that had been excavated to carry water from the river to the cultivated fields, and following its course, halting often to look and to listen as they proceeded, discovered finally just before the morning light began to appear, a little rustic bridge across the ditch, under which they hastily crawled for concealment.

Soon after daylight a Mexican came from a house near by and opening the great wooden gate of a corral that adjoined it, drove out several horses that had been confined within the enclosure and delivered them to the care of a mounted peon, who hastily drove them away to the grazing grounds of the settlement near the base of the mountains down which the warriors had recently come. As the animals passed out of the corral the Navajos watched them closely