A Merry Christmas at Ft.Yuma
In 1849, Army engineer Lt. Amiel Weeks Whipple rescued a young Yuma Indian girl who’d been lost in the desert of southern New Mexico Territory. The girl was nearly dead from exposure, thirst, and hunger when Whipple found her and returned the girl to her people.
Two years later, Whipple and a 47-man contingent ran into a force of some 1500 Yuma Indians near Fort Yuma. Just as a fight was about to break out, that same young girl stepped forward and spoke to her father, who was one of the chiefs. She pointed out Whipple as the man who had saved her life. The tension was broken and the Yumas prepared a Christmas feast for the soldiers.
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