CHAPTER XXIV. THE NAVAHO
The great Shoshonean and Athapascan stocks extended from the Northwest down into the Southwest. The States of Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, southwestern Colorado, western Texas and southern California prior to 1860 were known as the “Great American Desert.” The Yuman, Piman and Athapascan, together with a few lesser stocks, inhabited this great region. Chief of the desert tribes is the Navaho. Doctor Washington Matthews has presented considerable literature in the American Anthropologist and elsewhere on this interesting folk; Oscar H. Lipps published a history of the Navaho in 1909; George Wharton James, Esq., refers to them at considerable length in his publications. The Franciscan Fathers, having a mission at St. Michaels, Arizona, published in 1910 a complete ethnologic dictionary of the Navaho customs, legends, and gave large numbers of sentences. This also contained a bibliography of some length. Doctor George W. Pepper of the University of Pennsylvania Museum published a very interesting article on “The Making of a Navaho Blanket” in Everybody’s Magazine, January, 1902. A volume giving details of blanket and wool industry among the Navaho has just been written by George Wharton James, Esq., entitled “Indian Blankets and Their Makers”. This volume of 213 large pages contains many colored plates and is the most comprehensive treatment of the Navaho blanket-weaving industry ever published.
The Navaho are the only really unspoiled Indians left in America, and I trust that readers will pardon repetition, when I again urge that they be let alone to work out their own salvation. That is, while certain safeguards are necessary, we should realize our incompetency and ignorance—not to use a stronger term—in handling the natives of Oklahoma, Minnesota and California, and not repeat our blunders in the “benevolent assimilation” of these intelligent, industrious, and moral people. Here is one splendid racial stock that has thus far escaped the blight of our bureaucracy. The Navaho still stands, frightened, gazing in at the threshold of our civilization. He sees the greed of the white settler for his possessions.
There have been a number of reports on the Navaho, in addition to the ethnological and popular works cited. Any one of these will give readers a fair conception of conditions among these Indians.
Rev. Anselm Weber of the Franciscan Mission published a pamphlet on July 25, 1914. The Indian Rights Association has also taken up officially these Indians in its annual reports, the past two or three years. Honorable F. H. Abbott, Secretary of the Board of Indian Commissioners, visited the Navaho and made specific recommendations as to allotment and irrigation plans. In December-January, 1913–14, Rev. Samuel A. Eliot and Rev. William H. Ketcham, members of the Board of Indian Commissioners, officially visited the Navaho and made a report to the Secretary of the Interior. Rev. W. R. Johnson, missionary located at Indian Wells, Arizona, has repeatedly urged in public addresses at Lake Mohonk and elsewhere the need of proper protection of this, the finest body of aboriginal men and women remaining in North America.
It is not necessary to go back to 1850, to state that these Indians were in a satisfactory condition. They are in a satisfactory condition today, and are the only band of Indians so situated in this country. The number of them is said by Father Weber to be about 25,000. Rev. Johnson, who traveled extensively over the reservation, claims there are 28,000. Taking into consideration several thousand that live off the reservation on the public domain, there are at least 30,000 Navaho today. The number of sheep they possess has been variously estimated from one million to two million head. The number of blankets the women wove last year, no man may know, but the value of the blanket industry is upwards of a million dollars per annum. A few years ago, Commissioner Valentine stated that the Navaho sold $800,000 worth of blankets. It must be remembered that many of their blankets are sold north of the San Juan river and elsewhere off the reservation, and that traveling traders and buyers continually penetrate beyond the borders of the reserve. The totals obtained by superintendents, teachers and white employees, is doubtless far below the actual volume of business.
As everyone knows, the reservation is a part of our famous “painted desert”. It is exceedingly diversified in character, the landscape varying from high mesas to deep canons; from towering mountains to stretches of desert. Fortunately, no mineral deposits aside from coal have been discovered. On three separate occasions, in the ’60’s, ’70’s and ’80’s, prospectors, in defiance of law, entered the Navaho reservation in search of gold, silver or copper. When I was conducting the cliff-dweller expeditions along the San Juan in 1892 and again in 1897, several of the “oldtimers” informed me that these prospectors were never heard of afterward. Accompanying the last expedition, there were several men from north of Durango, Colorado, and their friends threatened reprisals on the Navaho, alleging that the Indians had killed these prospectors. However, aside from talk, nothing was done, the men never returned, and the Indians remained in peaceful possession of their estate. It was considered, in the ’70’s and ’80’s “bad medicine” for white men to depart from certain Navaho trails!
The Navaho reservation embraces 11,887,793 acres, of which approximately 719,360 acres belong to the Santa Fe Pacific Railroad Company, and approximately 55,400 acres to the State of Arizona, leaving 11,113,033 acres. Consequently, if you take the very conservative figure of 25,000 Navahos and 11,113,033 acres belonging to them, you would have 444 acres to the person. But as four-fifths is high, dry mesa or absolute desert, the statement often made that each Indian might have 444 acres is misleading. Each Indian could not have (average) more than twelve or fifteen acres of pasture land.
The Navaho are the only large body of Indians in the United States who keep up ancient customs, arts and ceremonies. They not only enjoy a great variety of games and sports, but they are probably the best and strongest long-distance runners in America. Mr. Lipps has given a very entertaining account of their games, etc., in his book, to which I have referred on a previous page.
They are exceedingly adverse to burying their dead and are quite willing that white people should perform this service for them. Of all the remaining Indian tribes, they furnish the best field for investigation at the present time. Much has been written concerning them, but it will require additional researches in order to complete a satisfactory study of their ethnology.
On the death of the head of the family, his property “descends to his brothers, sisters, uncles and aunts to the exclusion of his wife and children, a custom which is often very harmful in its effects, since if the wife should happen not to be possessed of some property in her own right she and her children are made to suffer penury and want.”[[47]]
In past years a number of the older men possessed two or three wives. Polygamy was to be expected, for the Mormons settled north of the San Juan, (Utah), long before white settlers came from the East. Although the Navaho probably believed in polygamy long ago, only those who were well-to-do had more than one wife, and the increase in polygamous marriages was undoubtedly due to the example set by the Mormons.
The Government has taken steps to wipe out this practice and no more plural marriages are permitted. Men having more than one wife have been encouraged to give up their plural wives, and this has been done in some cases, mainly where there are no children by the marriage.
NAVAHO SILVERSMITH AND HIS OUTFIT
The Navaho are invariably kind and considerate to each other, and their family life is of higher plane than among most Indians. The children are seldom punished, for the good reason that they do not merit punishment. In the case of very old persons, it is sometimes observed that the children do not love and protect them as completely as might be expected.
The chief taboo of the Navaho is the fish. Under no circumstances will a Navaho eat fish. He believes that upon the death of a very evil person, the spirit enters the body of a fish, hence his utter horror and hatred of the finny tribe. An Indian student entered Phillips Academy, Andover, some years ago. He was employed in the dining hall and thus earned his tuition. He informed me that his most disagreeable duty, and that which he loathed, was the preparation of fish for the weekly Friday dinner.
When we were in camp at Chaco canon in 1897, the Navaho came to us in large numbers at meal time. Our larder rapidly diminished. Something must be done. The cook found that one of the packing boxes had a large blue codfish stamped on the side. He placed this box out in plain view and the Indians who had assembled to eat supper with us withdrew to their own camps.
The Navaho had carried on raids against the Mexicans and the frontier of Texas for many years. In 1863 a party of men led by the famous scout, Kit Karson, invaded their territory and killed a large number of Indians. All of the Navaho that could be captured were taken East to the Rio Pecos. Here they were kept until 1867 under military guard, when they were restored to their country and given a large flock of sheep. In 1869 the Government assembled all these Indians and having difficulty to enumerate them because of their nomadic habits, resorted to a novel stratagem. The people were crowded in an enormous corral, and counted as they entered. The Handbook of American Indians states that there were some fewer than 9,000. I cannot believe that this estimate was accurate, for it would be impossible for troops to round up all the Navaho. Doubtless, many fled north of the San Juan, or west to the Colorado, on the appearance of the troops.
They are very highly religious people and possess thousands of significant songs and prayers. The Handbook states that some of the ceremonies continue for nine nights, and that it is necessary for the shamans to spend years of study in order to become perfectly familiar with the complicated ritual.
The Indians were much crowded before permitted to settle upon public lands. To meet this need, Commissioner Leupp in 1908 extended the reservation. Father Weber covers all the details in his excellent pamphlet. The white cattlemen and their friends set up a great uproar, indignation meetings were held, and Congress was importuned to prevent the Indians from living on the public domain. In fact, all sorts of pressure was brought to bear to reduce the size of the reservation—although it was manifestly too small. None of the Mexicans and Americans, for whom the business men and politicians of the southwest were so concerned, were living on the tracts they sought to control. On the contrary they lived in towns or settlements removed from the Indian country, and simply ranged their sheep and cattle over these tracts in charge of herders and cowboys. The Indians, the Navaho, against whom this hue and cry was raised, actually had their homes upon the tracts, and were dependent upon them for their living. Many of them lived in the same place for two or three generations. During all the disputes, no one was shot, and no violence occurred. Yet all that was possible was done to mislead Congress, as the following speech attests.
RED GOAT AND HIS MOTHER, NAVAHO, 1902
Photograph by E. R. Forrest.
“I want to say to the Senator (Bristow) that possibly he does not understand the conditions as they exist in our country. Possibly he is not aware of the fact that every year, two or three times a year, these Indians are allowed to go from their immensely rich reserves to interfere with white men, American citizens, on the public domain, causing the killing of anywhere from one to a dozen people. This is an unfortunate condition of affairs. I can say to the Senator that we people down in our section of the country can deal with these conditions if we are compelled to; but this sometimes becomes a question of all a man has—of his property rights, of protection to his family and his children. Any white man, any American citizen, will then use such force as is necessary in protecting his family. All that we seek to do is to restrict the further location of these Indians upon the public domain until Congress can act again. The committee is being appointed, and I presume this matter will be investigated. It has been investigated before, and reports made, and no action taken. But this must cease; it must stop; and I tell the Senator from Kansas that it will stop.”—(Congressional Record, June 17, 1913, page 2320).
Father Weber’s comment on it is very apropos:—
“I regret that a Senator made this statement. I have been among the Navaho for sixteen years, and I know of not one single instance where a white man was killed on account of Navahos leaving the reservation, or on account of any grazing or land disputes. If every year the killing of from one to a dozen is occasioned by Navaho leaving their reserve, how is it that no one knows anything about it?”[[48]]
In past years I have traveled a good deal over the Navaho reservation. Recently one of my friends, J. Weston Allen, Esq., of Boston, on behalf of the Boston Indian Citizenship Committee, of which he is vice-chairman, made a tour of investigation through the Navaho country, and the conditions as he found them were incorporated in an able report to the Secretary of the Interior. Major William T. Shelton, the Superintendent at Shiprock, who has long lived with these Indians, while differing in some details from the views of Mr. Sniffen, Rev. Johnson and Honorable F. H. Abbott, yet agrees with them in the main issue that the Navaho should not be too much superintended. All he needs is protection—not charity, suggestion, nor interference with his industry. Doctor W. W. Wallace, who has been a trader among the Navaho since 1890, writes me that the Indians have steadily progressed, that they ask no favors, and all they desire is to be permitted to continue on their successful way. My own observation leads me to believe that the reservation should not be reduced; allotments must not be made in any event until irrigation has disclosed the land values; more schools should be established, and above all dams should be erected to store water during the spring floods so that more acres may be brought under cultivation. There are vast possibilities for irrigation in the Navaho country, as Mr. Abbott has pointed out. The last investigation by two members of our Board (Ketcham and Eliot) was important, and I present two of the seven recommendations they strongly urged.
“Allotment. We are thoroughly convinced that the time has not yet come for the allotment of the Indians on the reservation. The Navaho is proceeding along the way of civilization as fast as he can safely travel. He is independent and self-supporting. He is steadily improving his dwelling, his stock and his method of farming. He is learning English, sending his children to school, and increasingly following the advice of the white physicians. He is developing his own water resources, forming good industrial habits and gradually adopting white standards of domestic life. Following their own customs, the Indians divide their common resources with remarkable fairness and live peaceably with one another and with the Whites. They must be permitted slowly to come into an understanding of our customs of private land ownership and inheritance. There is nothing to be gained by hurrying that process. Allotment on the reservation should not be thought of for a good many years to come.
“We are impressed with the exceptional opportunity of the Navaho reservation for the work of field matrons and recommend that an additional force be provided for. The field matrons should work in close cooperation with superintendents, teachers and physicians.
“In general we believe that the condition of the Navaho is promising. The people are virile, industrious and independent. With the exercise of ordinary good judgment, patience and tact, there need never be any serious problem in connection with their development.”
Doctor Joseph K. Dixon, representing the Wanamaker Expedition, visited the “painted desert”. He took some remarkable motion pictures of Navaho herders driving thousands of sheep down to the waterholes. As I observed these pictures, portraying the peaceful, industrious life of these red nomads of the desert, I wished fondly that all men and women unable to observe Indian life as it is in the Southwest, might see them. They recalled many interesting days spent among these sturdy folk. The natives living as do the Navaho, present an object lesson to all “reformers”, and it is to be devoutly hoped that we will heed the lesson and “let well enough alone.” To do otherwise will destroy the initiative of a self-supporting and upright people, and deprive the world of a primitive stock of exceptional physical stamina and mental ability.
Mr. Allen’s report to the Secretary of the Interior and the Boston Indian Citizenship Committee cannot be reproduced at length, much to my regret, but I herewith append certain sections, as it is a splendid presentation of the Navaho situation and includes valuable recommendations to meet the needs of these Indians.
“Three obvious difficulties immediately present themselves when any plan of Navaho settlement is considered—(1) the great inequality of the land for grazing purposes; (2) the scarcity of water, and the fact that much of the land is far distant from the nearest water supply; (3) the existence of summer and winter ranges and the removal of the sheep from place to place under the changing conditions of different seasons of the year.
“Of the inequality of the land for grazing purposes, it is sufficient to say that there are vast areas of rock and sand where an allotment of 160 acres would not support a single sheep. Of the inaccessibility of water, it may be similarly stated that there are sections of land within the reservation which are so far from water during the dry season that sheep would die from exhaustion before they could reach it. Of the necessity of moving the sheep from one part of the reservation to another, it is perhaps sufficient to point out that in the winter the sheep must have the protection of the sheltered valleys and in the summer they are driven by the heat and the scarcity of water into the mountains.
“A matter of far greater importance in the consideration of any equitable allotment is the determination of the location and extent of the land within the limitations of the reservation which can be claimed by irrigation.”
Mr. Allen points out the difficulties in allotting a nomadic people permanent homes. He is opposed to any allotment under existing conditions. It may have to come in time, doubtless prematurely as in the case of other reservations, but on the Navaho reservation there are difficulties which have not been encountered in our experience with other tribes.
Mr. Allen’s report may be summed up as follows:—There should be a commission appointed composed of engineers and stockmen to thoroughly investigate the possibilities of the reservation, both through means of storage dams to conserve the mountain freshets in the springtime, and also to divert the water from the rivers as is being done along the San Juan river to the north. This stream carries a large volume of water, and although there are many white persons living north of the river in Utah and New Mexico and much water is used, the river is very high from May 1st to July 1st. It therefore affords great possibilities in the way of water storage.
He recommends a detailed study of the coalbeds and timber tracts on the reservation, and the improvement of the Navaho sheep, by the introduction of better stock.
NAVAHO WINTER HOGAN
Photographed by E. R. Forrest; 1902
While tuberculosis is found in about 10% of the Navaho, trachoma is much more prevalent, and he records the usual story of afflicted Indian children, men and women. The hospital facilities are totally inadequate. There is a hospital at Indian Wells, Arizona, maintained by the National Indian Association, an Episcopal hospital near Fort Defiance, while another is maintained by the Presbyterians at Ganado. The only large hospital with adequate equipment is at the Government school at Fort Defiance. Doctor Wigglesworth, physician in charge, who has won the confidence of these Indians by long years of constant labor among them, does all in his power to alleviate distress, but the field is entirely too extensive to be covered by one man. Mrs. Mary L. Eldridge, for many years in charge of a mission near Farmington, N. M., does medical work among the Indians. There is a small Government hospital at Shiprock.
The medicine men cause the Government officials and missionaries a great deal of trouble. Mr. Allen presents a number of incidents in his reports explaining their activities. Many Indians will not take treatment in the hospitals through fear of the shamans, and in more than one instance a sick Indian has been removed by his friends from the mission hospital during the night, and carried off to the village where he might be treated by the shaman.
MODERN INDIAN HOUSE, SYLVIAN, OKLAHOMA
This type is inferior in construction to the houses built in pre-statehood days.
Educational facilities are inadequate to care for half the children of school age. In many of the schools, trachoma has afflicted numbers of the children. When tuberculosis develops among the school children they are sent home from the school to die without medical attendance. Mr. Allen suggests that more physicians, qualified to treat trachoma and tuberculosis, be appointed to service among the Navaho, and that each one be assigned a territory fifty miles square, with a field sanitarium located near the center of the territory. He also suggests that young Navaho women, selected from the larger boarding schools, be trained as nurses, since many of these Indians do not take kindly to treatment by white persons, and it is difficult to secure competent nurses who are willing to remain long in the small frontier hospitals of the Navaho desert.
At Shiprock, Superintendent Shelton has developed a large school with extensive farms and industrial buildings. The settlement at Shiprock is justly considered one of the show places in the Indian Service. Here the desert is made to blossom as the rose. Mr. Shelton admits few small children in his school and keeps his scholars until they reach adult age. He is thus able to make a better showing in his farms and gardens than do those who receive the children at an earlier age, and return them to their homes after four or five years of training. Mr. Shelton’s work at Shiprock could now be carried on by some one else, and his recognized ability used in a new field to develop another section of the reservation further west. By creating another Shiprock, he could do more to raise the standard of living among his people.
Superintendent Paquette at Fort Defiance is extending education work throughout his reservation, and reaches a larger percentage of children of school age than are being reached elsewhere in the Navaho country.
In concluding his report, Mr. Allen points out the failure of the returned student to make good and the reasons for it.
“The problem of the returned student is a serious one among the Navaho. The boys and girls who have been for years in school come back to their people without a training for taking care of the flocks, and are outdone by those who remain at home. They are for this reason more or less looked down upon, with the result that they have no inclination to continue the habits of study and cleanliness which they have acquired at school and which are not appreciated in the home. The effort of the old men of the tribe is to keep the children who return from school from seeking any higher place than is enjoyed by other members of the family. If the young men and the young women of the tribe, who have received an education and who have acquired an appreciation of what they learned in school, intermarried, the benefits of their education would be more permanent, but many of the girls upon their return from school are given in marriage by their parents to old men of the tribe, and many of the boys return only to find that they are required to marry old women, or at best, ‘camp girls’ as they are called—the uneducated girls of the hogan. The inevitable result is that they go back to the old life.”