There were three of us—a Tewa policeman, the big stockman, and myself.
We found the camp a short distance off the main road to Gallup, back in
the trees. It held several women, four or five young fellows who
promptly departed, and one large, heavy-set man who looked twenty-five
years in age, and who was perhaps thirty-five. The Navajo men do not
show their true ages until long past thirty. It is difficult to gauge
their years until the lines begin to set in their faces.
Among the women I recognized a duplicate of the Cañon weaver. Assuming
that this was the person who knew something of the robbery, I began to
question her, using the policeman as interpreter. The Tewa Indians
usually speak three languages: their own and Hopi and Navajo. The big
fellow at the fire pricked up his ears. He feared that she would tell
of the beating, for she was the sister who had been beaten; and lo,
here she was being questioned concerning the blankets he had removed
from the trading-post. I have no doubt that this caused him great
uneasiness, and soon he began to evidence his disapproval of my
questions, claiming that the woman knew nothing about the affair of the
robbery. Several times he interrupted, asking: “Why you want to know
that?”
I had no intention of disturbing this sullen fellow, but when he
interrupted again, I told him to hold his peace. I turned to the old
woman of the outfit.
“Do you know where Hoske Nehol Gode is?”
Neither she nor any one of them knew. The man at the fire sneered and
seemed amused. I suspected that he would know something.
“What is your name?” I asked him.
Of the two evils, he chose the one he thought I knew less about.
“Guy,” he said.
Now did I not want Guy for burglary, although I had not been seeking
him? This was too good an opportunity to be missed.
“Well, I have been looking for you, Guy,” I told him. “You will go back
to the Agency with us.”
The resistance of an Indian is always negative. He stood up, and
started to move off, out of the camp. I therefore of necessity had to
move out of the camp with him, for I had him by the shirt-collar. This
fellow must have weighed two hundred pounds of well-knit muscle, and he
was in perfect fighting trim from roping and handling and riding rough
ponies, and generally leading an Indian’s life in the open. At my best
Arizona weight, aside from determination and official authority, I
tipped the beam at one hundred and eighteen pounds. He walked off with
me just as a range bull would depart with a sixteen-pound Boston
terrier hanging to his muzzle.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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