Forty Years Among the Indians: A true yet thrilling narrative of the author's experiences among the nativesJones, Daniel W. (Daniel Webster)
History
Forty Years Among the Indians: A true yet thrilling narrative of the author's experiences among the natives
Jones, Daniel W. (Daniel Webster)
Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.); Indians of North America; Latter Day Saint pioneers -- Biography
Accordingly the orders were duly executed, and Dowel and his
assistants, the judge being one of the party, proceeded to shoot four
of these condemned men on the street in front of the main saloon of the
town. They were buried, as the records show, and the costs of court and
all proceedings duly recorded.
Judge Jones showed me the record and explained how it was done. I never
heard any complaint about the proceedings but, on the other hand, Judge
Jones and Ben Dowel were very much respected by the average citizens of
the country.
During the winter Brothers Pratt and Stewart remained most of the time
at Ysleta. Brother Ivins helped me make saddle-trees, took care of the
stock, and made himself generally useful. I worked most of the time in
the shop, my son Wiley helping me. We boarded with a Mexican family,
Santiago Vega, who treated us very kindly, often posting us on what was
said of us.
The Mexican people are great riders and fond of a good saddle. This
gave me a chance to talk to the people. All seemed friendly. Even the
priest who had given us such a setting up came and patronized us. We
also distributed a few books. We tried quite hard to get a hearing from
the natives that lived in and around El Paso, but the priest kept such
a watch upon our moves that we had but little chance.
These natives are known as Pueblos. Never having mixed with the
Spanish blood they are still pure blooded Indians. They are generally
poor, occupying lands owned by the rich. They desired to hear us and
appointed meetings, but were warned that if they listened to us their
rents would be raised or they would be driven from their lands. So we
had to let them alone, seeing their situation.
The brethren held meetings often at Ysleta and adjacent towns. One
family, by the name of Campbell, who resided at San Elesario, opened
their doors to the Elders, treating them with great kindness. This
family afterwards joined the Church.
After recruiting our animals and feeling that we had done about all
the good in our power in El Paso, we determined to make a move into
the interior and go to the city of Chihuahua. We were told that the
governor, Senor Ochoa, was a very liberal-minded man and not under
priestly control, and that he would be very likely to allow us the
privilege of preaching.
I wrote to President Young regularly. We received letters from him in
return, giving us kind encouragement and instructions.
I reported to him our finances, which were getting short, stating that
we intended going on and working our way through the best we could.
We received a postal card directing us to wait till we heard from
him. When we did hear it was in the shape of postal orders for money
sufficient to bear our expenses for some time.
Before leaving El Paso I called on the Jefe Politico. I had hoped that
I could get some kind of a letter from him that would assist us in
getting introduced into Chihuahua.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account