Excerpt from Notes of a Summer Tour Among the Indians of the Southwest It has already been remarked that in choosing sites for the Apache villages, Captain Scott gave much latitude to the judg ment of the head men. This suggests another chapter of the story. Two courses lie open to every agent or other officer who takes charge of a band of Indians. He finds them organized under certain leadership. There will, perhaps, be a war chief, a peace chief, several sub-chiefs, head men, and the like. He may promptly depose all these dignitaries and announce himself as the sole source of authority, calling no councils, asking no advice, and brooking no interference. On the other hand, he may place himself wholly outside of the organization, refer every thing to the leaders, issue his communications through them, and, by deferring to their wishes in all matters, add to the authority they already possess the sanction of Government support. In deciding at the outset what attitude he shall take toward the existing organization, he may make or mar his entire administra tion. No unvarying rule can be laid down, applicable to all Indians and all conditions. In some instances the prominent members of a tribe have been so spoiled by timid or time-serving agents that to give them any rein whatever means to surrender all hope of advancing their followers in civilization. In other cases it is the conservative, wise, steady-headed old men upon whom the agent must lean in trying to keep the younger generation out of vice and crime, while the so-called progressive element are lending themselves, often under the cloak of religion, to every scheme for making money out of their own flesh and blood. It therefore behooves the white officer in command to study well the condition in which he finds his Indians, and shape his conduct accordingly. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.