Manufactures of the Arizona Indians

Colonel Cooke told that the Maricopas, near the junction of the Gila and
the Salt, had piled on their house arbors "cotton in the pod for drying."
As he passed in the latter days of the year, it is probable he saw merely
the bolls that had been left unopened after frost had come, and that this
was not the ordinary method for handling cotton. That considerable cotton
was grown is evidenced by the fact that a part of Cooke's company
purchased cotton blankets. Historian Tyler states that when he reached
Salt Lake the most material feature of his clothing equipment was a Pima
blanket, from this proceeding an inference that the Indians made cotton
goods of lasting and wearing quality. In the northern part of Arizona,
the Hopi also raised cotton and made cloth and blankets, down to the time
of the coming of the white man, with his gaudy calicoes that undoubtedly
were given prompt preference in the color-loving aboriginal eye.


Cooke's Story of the March

"The Conquest of New Mexico and California" is the title of an excellent
and entertaining volume written in 1878 by Lieut.-Col. P. St. George
Cooke, commander of the Battalion. It embraces much concerning the
political features found or developed in both Territories and deals
somewhat with the Kearny expedition and with the Doniphan campaign into
Mexico that moved from Socorro two months after the Battalion started
westward from the Rio Grande. Despite his eloquent acknowledgment of good
service in the San Diego order, he had little to say in his narrative
concerning the personnel of his command. In addition to the estimate of
the command printed on a preceding page, he wrote, "The Battalion have
never been drilled and though obedient, have little discipline; they