come across the Colorado River, we called them the Chem-A-Wau-Wa-Worthy, and they gave us guns and pistols, and powder and bullets, so that most of us had guns or pistols, and were also armed with our bows and arrows. I commenced shooting at the soldiers with my gun and they scattered. I overtook the rest of my party, and we did not give any more attention to the horses or mules, but prepared to fight for our lives. When I reached my men we all got down in a little creek or gulch, and stood the soldiers off as they were coming over the hill. The soldiers got off their horses and fought us on foot, leaving their horses on the hills. We could not raise our heads to see much because the soldiers were shooting at us so fast. Some of our party got on the top of a high butte there was there and when the soldiers came too close they would give them a few shots and drive them back. The soldiers held us there nearly all day. Two of our men were shot nearly all to pieces, but they would not have been hurt at all if they had kept in the gulch. When we saw how things were, we all raised up together and all shot at once at the soldiers on the top of the hill, and those of our men who were on top of the butte behind us fired a volley at the soldiers right after ours, and there were no more soldiers to be seen in the field. One of our party who was on the butte called out that the soldiers were going back the way they had come. Some of the soldiers were seen driving back a few of the horses and mules we took that morning. The fight lasted until about four o'clock in the afternoon. After the soldiers had gone back we found a few horses on the other side of the hill and drove them on with us, carry

ing the two Indians who had been wounded, and that night some of the Indians sang all night over the wounded men. The next morning we moved to our camp on Bill Williams' and two men were sent back to our old camp to tell the news of what had happened and to bring help to carry the two wounded men. This was done and the two men recovered and were able to go about just as well as they ever could. They were afterwards killed by the Navajos with whom they had always been on friendly terms, trading them all sorts of things for blankets and other things which were more valuable in those days. The Navajos had changed, however, and were very mean. They would often drive off herds of sheep and goats across the country where other Indians lived, and on that account the Indian scouts and the soldiers would often jump on innocent bands of Indians, and kill them all off under the supposition that they had done the raiding. The other Indians did not know anything about sheep or goats, but the Navajos did, and would steal them for their meat, and for their wool, which they made into blankets, rugs, etc., throwing the blame on other tribes of Indians who were entirely innocent. Much has been written and said by the white people in favor of the Navajos, but it is a fact that the Navajos were one of the worst tribes of Indians, and were very skillful in throwing the blame for their misdeeds on to other tribes of Indians. The Navajos would come very close to Prescott and drive off stock, kill ranchers and teamsters and mail-carriers, and they would do this even after all the Yavapais and other Indians were on the reservations at Campe Verde and Cottonwood.'

"About the year 1865 the Colorado Indians, who were called by other Indians Mo-cav-va, or Mohava, lived on the banks of the great Colorado River. They were the first Indians who met with the whites, and were the advisers or agents of the soldiers stationed at Fort Mohave. Some of them used to visit the mountain Indians, who were known to them as Talle-ca-by-ya, or Apache-Yumas, as they are now known. Their ranges were all along the west of the Bradshaw Mountains, to the south as far as the HarquaHala, and to the west as far as the Colorado River. They were on friendly terms with the Indians all along the Colorado River, the Yuma or Cachons, and also with the Mo-cav-vas, or Mohaves. They could understand one another's languages, and also the language of the Yavapais. It is said that these tribes of Indians, the Yumas, Mohaves, Walapais, Talle-ca-by-yas and Yavapais, used to be one family, but they got to quarrelling and separated, going in different directions. The ones that went west became separated again, one party going south and they were called the Cajones, or the Yumas. Another party went above the Colorado River, and they were called the Mo-cav-vas or Mohaves. Other Indians call them Havel-by-ya (the People in the Waters). At one time some of the Mohaves sent their runners over to these Talle-ca-by-yas to invite their headmen or chiefs to come to Fort Mohave to have a peace meeting. Many of them, about thirty-five, came to learn what they were to talk about. When they reached Fort Mohave they were told to go into a large house and they were kept there and killed, none went back. Some of their tribe afterwards went to a friendly

Indian camp near Fort Mohave to try and learn what had become of the chiefs who came there to hold a council, and were told that their chiefs had been killed by the soldiers.

"After a while the very same white men who ordered these deeds committed, went out to bring these Indians from their homes on the Colorado River bottoms. The Indians learned of this, and held a meeting, and it was agreed to ambush the party of whites coming out to make a treaty and a watch was set for the party, which included Commissioner of Indian Affairs Leihy. One day a runner came in and said that Leihy and others were on the road between Date Creek and Kirkland. The Indians gathered on the roadside, hidden by the bushes. The approaching party consisted of Leihy, a driver, and an interpreter in a buggy, and one white man on a horse. The Indians in the bushes heard Leihy call out: 'Do not harm me or my party because we are out among you Yavapais for the purpose of making peace with you, and all you mountain people.' The Indians were glad to learn that they were going to meet the right party, the men they had long been looking for. The party came close on to the ambushing Indians, who were concealed on both sides of the wagon road, and all at once they attacked, shot the horses and all rushed in to get the first shot at Leihy. One big Indian proposed, and it was agreed, that no one Indian should claim that he was the man who had killed the great chief who was a white man, and who was the man who had made all the false treaties in order to bring all the Indians in to close range in order to kill them quicker and easier than fighting them at a distance.

"At least three parties of Indians had been induced to go to Fort Mohave and never returned. They were told that the white man had sent out word to all the Indians throughout the country inviting the Yavapais to come in to Fort Mohave to make peace and receive rations, clothing, and all kinds of presents.

"The Indians killed Leihy, the two white men with him, and one Indian who was from Fort Mohave and who accompanied Leihy as interpreter. There was another Indian with the party but he was found to be one of their own people. Most of the Indians wanted to kill him, too, but others did not, and finally his life was spared. He was found to be one of the parties who had gone in previously to Fort Mohave and he had been forced to guide the party of white men over the country. So this lone Indian was taken back to his people.

"The foregoing occurred near Skull Valley, near where so many of the Yavapais were slaughtered, and it was not so very long after that killing was done. Afterwards, when the white people came to that valley, they saw many bones and skulls of human beings, and so they named it Skull Valley. The bones and skulls were thick all along the valley, but where they were to have had the meeting they were thickest. At this massacre some ran for their lives because they had nothing to protect themselves with. They had been told that when they went to meet the white men they must not have any arms or weapons; that they must leave their bows and arrows in the hills in order to show that they came in to meet the newcomers in a friendly spirit, and it was promised that the white man would not hurt