In the spring of 1877 the Gila Crossing Pimas and the Gila Maricopa villagers were pitted against each other in a relay race, the first between the two tribes.[1]
Blackwater. While a party was gathering mescal just before the wheat ripened a mare gave birth to twin colts.
1877–78
Gila Crossing, Salt River. During the winter a man who had gone a long distance to search for his horses perished from the cold, and his body was found in a sitting position under a tree.[2]
Gila Crossing. A party of Pimas went to the Kwahadkʽ village to drink tizwin, and in the quarrel which ensued the Casa Blancas killed two men of Santan.
Some time afterwards the Gila Crossing people drank tizwin, and one of their number was killed by a man from Salt River.
Blackwater. A man of Blackwater who was with a party that went to gather mescal sickened from some unknown cause, and died. The corpse was brought back to the village.
1878–79
Gila Crossing, Salt River, Blackwater. The principal event of the year was the building of the Southern Pacific railroad along the southern border of the Gila River reservation.
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Salt River (a), Blackwater (b). A feud that had originated in the quarrel at the Kwahadkʽ village during the preceding year reached an acute stage in February, 1879. The majority of the people of Blackwater and the lower villages, which were then known as Santan, conspired to kill the men of a certain faction during a night determined upon several days in advance. A guard was set at Blackwater, who was to watch their movements without giving them any hint of his purpose. One of those who were preparing for the attack at Blackwater had a brother at Casa Blanca, and he feared that this brother might be included in the list of victims at the lower villages, so he went one night to warn him or to get him to return with him to Blackwater. The next day the brother's conscience began to act, and he finally decided that if these men were killed and he did not warn them he would be answerable for their death. He therefore sent a runner to Blackwater, who told one of the intended victims of the conspiracy formed against them.
- ↑ Tcĕrĭkûs, one of the Maricopa runners, afterwards won a six-day race in San Francisco and was a close second in a similar endurance race in New York.
- ↑ The Pimas believe that be froze to death, and if this be true it indicates an unusually low temperature and that one man at least had very slight power of resistance to cold. The lowest temperature recorded at the Phoenix meteorological station for a period of sixteen years is 11° F. Rept. of Chief of Weather Bureau, 1900–1901, I.
