Gila Crossing, Salt river. The Maricopa and Phoenix railroad was built during this year, and thus connection was established between the fertile districts of the Salt river and the Southern Pacific railroad.[1]
Salt River. The medicine-man Staups gave a great dance at Santan, which was accompanied by races and other ceremonies which attracted many visitors, among whom were a Yuma and his wife.
Blackwater. Juan Thomas was employed as a scout by the troops who pursued Geronimo during his last flight into Mexico. The eight dots on Juan's stick represent the soldiers whom the Pimas accompanied. The minor leaders of the Apaches had entered the Pima camp thinking that they were friends, and had been captured, except seven who broke away. The commanding officer having ordered a fresh party of Pimas who had come up, to pursue the escaping Apaches, thirty-one Pimas and eight soldiers tracked the Apaches for two months, until they doubled back to the White mountains, where they were captured by the white soldiers before the Pimas overtook them.
1887–88
Gila Crossing, Salt river. Special mention is made by two annalists of the severe earthquake of May 3, 1887.[2] Owl Ear declared that "it was noticed by many of our people, if not by all, who wondered why the earth shook so."
Gila Crossing. The stage station at Gila Crossing, no longer needed after the railroad was built from the Southern Pacific to Phoenix, was moved during this year to Maricopa junction.
The Gila Crossing settlement was prosperous, and the Casa Blanca people went down to dance and share the products of their brothers' industry.
During a tizwin carousal which took place later in the year, two Gila Crossing men killed each other.
It was at this time that "a Mexican (sic) counted the bones of the people."[3]
The Maricopas were all living together at Moʼhatûk mountain when a quarrel arose in which a medicine-man was killed. His friends retaliated by killing a medicine-man of the opposite faction. This resulted in a division of the tribe, some going to the Pima settle-
- ↑ The road was completed July 2, 1887.
- ↑ This is known as the "Sonora earthquake." The shocks were so severe in that state as to be destructive to property and human life. At Tombstone, Ariz., the severe shocks lasted ten seconds, and the vibrations continued for a full minute. The earthquake was felt throughout the southern part of the Territory, and many ranchmen firmly believe that the drought of the last few years, which has transformed the grassy mesas into a desert waste, is due to that earthquake. See Goodfellow in Science, New York, Aug. 12, 1887.
- ↑ This is the Pima view of the somatological investigations of Dr Herman F.C. ten Kate, who measured 312 Pimas, besides many others among the Maricopas, Papagos, Zuñis, etc. His results are briefly summarized in the Journal of American Ethnology and Archæology, III, 119.
