“For more than a year,” Geronimo had said to them during the council in
which they had determined to leave Mexico, “we have been absent from the
country of the pindah-lickoyee. In all this time we have not struck a
blow against them. We have shown them that we are not at war with them
but with the Mexicans. Let us return with our herds to our own country
and settle down in peace. With what we have won we can increase our
cattle and our horses to such an extent that we shall not have to go
upon the war trail again for a long time—possibly never again. Thus we
can live in peace beside the pindah-lickoyee. Let us not strike again at
them. If our young men must go upon the war trail, there is always
Mexico. The Mexicans are our natural enemies. They were our enemies
before the pindah-lickoyee came; I do not forget Kas-ki-yeh, where my
wife, my mother, and my children were treacherously slain. Let not the
young warriors forget Kas-ki-yeh either! Many were the women and the
children and the warriors killed there that day while most of the
fighting braves were peaceably trading in the nearby village.
“Perhaps now that we have obtained the means to guard against hunger we
may live in peace in our own country with the white-eyed men. I have
made big medicine and prayed to Usen that this thing may be. I am tired
of fighting. I am tired of seeing my people killed in the hopeless
struggle against the white-eyes.”
And so the two tribes came back to the reservation at San Carlos,
bringing their great herd with them, and there was feasting and dancing
and much tizwin was consumed.
The White Mountain Apaches, who had not gone out with Geronimo, profited
however, for they had furnished many of the rifles and much of the
ammunition that had aided in the success of the renegades; and they
received their reward in the division of the spoils of war.
After the freedom and excitement of the war trail it was difficult for
the young braves to settle down to the monotony of reservation life.
Herding cattle and horses was far from a thrilling occupation and
offered little outlet for active, savage spirits; and it could as well
be done by boys as by men.
The result was that they spent much time in gambling and drinking, which
more often than not led to quarreling. Shoz-Dijiji suffered in a way,
perhaps, more than the majority, for his was naturally a restless spirit
which had not even the outlet afforded by strong drink, since
Shoz-Dijiji cared nothing for this form of dissipation. Nausea and
headaches did not appeal to him as particularly desirable or profitable.
He found a certain thrill in gambling, but most of all he enjoyed
contests of skill and endurance.
He challenged other braves to wrestle, jump, or run. The stakes were
ornaments, ammunition, weapons, ponies; but as Shoz-Dijiji always won it
was not long before he was unable to find an antagonist willing to risk
a wager against him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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