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and he said it was on account of their not being friendly to the white men and because they did not want to
send their children to school. Before the white men had built schools, everything had been going all right.
So he said that it was his fault that the trouble had begun some years ago.
The captain said that this chief should not have sent those people away. Since the white men caused the
trouble it was for the white man to handle it. The chief thought that he was doing something for his friend,
the white man, but he was told that it was wrong to send those people away where there was no shelter, so
that he would have to bring them back or serve a term in prison. He said he did not expect to serve a term
in prison, for he thought that he was doing something for the government. He told the captain that it was his
"theory" that he move the hostile chief out of the village. Youkioma knew that these things were going to
happen too and it had happened so. He said that if it had not been for the missionaries who interfered they
would have killed each other, Tewaquoptiwa and Youkioma.
The captain said he still had a chance to kill Youkioma, but Tewaquoptiwa said it was all over now. The
captain said that that was not the place where the people should settle and he said that Tewaquoptiwa still
had a chance to kill Youkioma if he wanted to. He also said that the
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next morning at sunrise he would give him a chance to do this. He would not let Tewaquoptiwa go home
that night and all this time Tewaquoptiwa did not know that he was under arrest.
In the meantime, after nightfall, the captain sent soldiers up in the draw by Bakabi and twenty-five or thirty
Navajos on police duty below Hotevilla Spring. In the meantime word was sent to Youkioma that he must
be ready to be shot at sunrise the next morning. So about dawn the captain, Tewaquoptiwa, and two Hopi
policemen, one Oraibi, and one Second Mesa policeman, and a guard came to Hotevilla and at the sand
dune the captain gave automatics to Tewaquoptiwa and to his interpreter.
Youkioma was waiting for them on the top of a sand dune. They slowly moved up on the hostile chief who
stood on the top of the sand dune, waiting for his time to come. He was all by himself, but behind the sand
dune his men were hidden with all the weapons they could find. They intended to kill Tewaquoptiwa if
Tewaquoptiwa killed Youkioma.
When the sun came up the captain told Tewaquoptiwa to walk up to Youkioma, but he refused to move. He
was asked four times by the captain, but he was so scared that he could not talk. His jaw was shaking too
fast. Since the Oraibi chief could not move the captain asked Youkioma to come over. So he came, not a bit
frightened, and the captain asked him if he was ready to be shot. He said he was, for this was the sad day
that would be his end. The captain asked Tewaquoptiwa if he was ready to do his duty that he was expected
to do, but he would not speak. He was so weak from fright that he could hardly stand up. Then the captain
asked Youkioma if he would want to take the gun away from his rival and do away with him, but
Youkioma said no, that that was not his "theory". His theory was only that he would get his followers away
from the old chief, to a better place. He said the Oraibi chief did not understand his "theory," and that he
was all wrong. However, even if he was wrong and had always had in mind about doing away with him, he
was willing to let him do it. He was willing to die for his people.
So the captain turned back to Tewaquoptiwa and asked him if he would do it now, since his rival had
voluntarily given himself up and was willing to die for his people. The chief said that he would not do it
because he said Youkioma must be right and that he himself had made a mistake in thinking of doing away
with him. Then Tewaquoptiwa asked the captain what he would do with him if
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he had killed the old man (Youkioma).
The captain said that Tewaquoptiwa was mistaken in sending the people away like that and he answered
that if it was not for this "theory" he would never have done it. Then the captain asked him where he got
this "theory" and he said he got it all from his great-uncles. It had been handed down for a good many years
and he was chosen to carry this out. The captain said he was sorry to say that his great-uncles must have
been pretty mean to have made such a theory and to give it to him to carry it out; that he had been misled
and he was not doing anything right for his people or for the government. So the captain told him that this
was not only a mistake but a big crime that he had done, to send the people away without anything to eat. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]