Page 296

296  REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 
siding here through the four seasons of the year, I am compelled to admit
that I know of no 
place which could have been selected, in point of healthfulness, with advantages
which this 
does not possess. The great amount of sickness during the season of 1873
was prevent- 
able. Cleanliness then exacted from the Indians would have diminished it
one-quarter. 
Timely advice against the use of tainted and injurious food should have been
given them; 
they should have been told that comfortable houses were healthier than cramped,
dirty 
huts; and beds elevated from the damp ground best for them; and that bathing
at all 
hours of the day, under a hot sun, would likely be followed by fever; and
lastly, that the 
vermilion paint besmeared about the face, and particularly about the eyes,
caused to a great 
extent the continued diseases of that organ. The value of medicine for disease,
rather than 
the use and perpetuation of their own Indian customs, should be practiced.
The experiment 
has been tried for one year at this place, and an earnest endeavor made to
reason them off 
from old superstitions, and with the most gratifying results. Their own doctors
have aban- 
doned their pernicious pursuits, and they are willingly adopting that which
is daily proved 
to them to be for their best good. 
In now closing my report, I would beg leave to add that I regard this reservation
as one 
of the best in the Territory, and probably to be excelled by only a few elsewhere,
for the 
great aim and end of civilizing the Indians by encouraged labor, and the
withdrawal of them 
from the haunts and pursuits of nomadic life upon a reservation suitable
in point of location 
and desirableness of climate, where honesty of purpose will succeed in helping
them onward 
in their journey of substantial progress. 
I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JOHN B. WHITE, 
Hon. E. P. SMITH,                 Subagent San Carlos Agency, Arizona Trritory.
Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Washington, D. C., 
(through James E. Roberts, United States Indian Agent.) 
SAN CARLOS INDIAN AGENCY, August 31, 1874. 
SIR: I have the honor to submit the following as my first annual report of
affairs at this 
agency: 
I arrived at San Carlos on the 8th of the present month; hence the limited
time I have 
had control of this agency will necessitate a much more contracted report
than I should 
have otherwise been pieased to submit. To give a full detail of the workings
and wander- 
ings of the San Carlos Indians during the past year would require a volume
by itself. 
The tribes represented on this reservation are the Pinal and Arivaipa Apaches
and Tontos, 
who were removed hither from Old Camp Grant in February, 1873. On the 1st
of June, 
1873, Maj. W. H. Brown, Fifth Cavalry, U. S. A., relieved Special Agent C.
F. Larrabee, 
and continued in charge until December 6,1873. During the month of September,
1873, 
the number of Indians at San Carlos was augmented by the arrival of some
Tontos from 
Old Camp Grant, and again in October by acquisitions from Camp Apache. These
Indians 
left Camp Apache and located at San Carlos by the mutual consent of the agents
in charge 
of the respective reservations. Also, during the mouth of October, a San
Carlos chief 
named Dis-a-lin, who left in May, 1873, was again permitted to return with
his band. The 
total acquisition for October was sixty-five. 
On September 17, 1873, an employe of this agency named John M. Logan was
killed by 
a White Mountain Indian named Es-kel-ule-goo, who came to San Carlos to evade
punish- 
ment for previous murders. Mr. Logan was with a party sent to arrest Es-kel-ule-goo.
The 
Indian drew a knife and fatally stabbed Mr. Logan and severely wounded a
soldier. He 
then attempted to escape, but was sot by Mr. George H. Stevens. Other than
this, Major 
Brown reports the Indians quiet and usually obedient. 
On October 28 the San Carlos agency was consolidated with the Camp Apache
agency, 
by direction of the honorable Secretary of the Interior, and on December
6, 1873, Major 
Brown was relieved by Special Agent James E. Roberts, of Camp Apache, who
continued 
in charge until relieved by me on 10th of the present month. The Indians
were now be- 
coming more and more insubordinate, and were, from time to time, indulging
in hostile de- 
monstrations, which, for want of a proper check, resulted in the lamentable
outbreak of 
January 31, 1874. The causes which led immediately to this outbreak are various,
and 
will be briefly considered hereafter. The facts are these, viz: 
The Indians were camped on the south side of the Gila River, opposite the
agency, and 
about one-half mile distant from it. During the latter part of January, a
wagon-train 
arrived, but found the Gila so much swollen by the heavy rains that it was
impossible to 
ford it, and hence they were obliged to camp at the crossing near the Indian
camps. For 
several days the Indians had been indulging very freely in their native drink,
tiswin, and 
their savage natures were wrought to a most excitable pitch. During the early
part of the 
night of January 31, about fifteen Indians attacked the train, killing one
man outright and 
mortally wounding another; immediately after which the entire number of Indians
(about 
900) left their camps and fled to the mountains. The attack on the train
and the flight to 
the mountains were undoubtedly incited and led on by some hal-dozen outlaws.
On the