Much of the material which is comprised in this report was collected by the late A. M. Stephen, who lived for many years among the Navaho. His high standing and universal popularity among these Indians gave him opportunities for the collection of data of this kind which have seldom been afforded to others. Some of the notes and sketches of Mr Victor Mindeleff, whose studies of Pueblo architecture are well known, have been utilized in this report. The author is indebted to Dr Washington Matthews, the well-known authority on the Navaho Indians, for revising the spelling of native terms occurring throughout the text.

In the present paper two spellings of the Navaho word for hut are used. The proper form is qoġán, but in and around the Navaho country it has become an adopted English word under the corrupt form hogán. Thus nearly all the whites in that region pronounce and spell it, and many of the Indians, to be easily understood by whites, are pronouncing it lately in the corrupted form. Therefore, wherever the term is employed as an adopted English word, the form hogán is given, but where it is used as part of a Navaho phrase or compound word the strictly correct form qoġán is preserved.

An inverted comma (‘) following a vowel shows that the vowel is aspirated.

An inverted comma following l shows that the l‘ is aspirated in a peculiar manner—more with the side than with the tip of the tongue.

ŋ represents the nasalized form of n.

ġ represents the Arabic ghain.

In other respects the alphabet of the Bureau is followed.

[ DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY]

The Navaho reservation comprises an extensive area in the extreme northeastern part of Arizona and the northwestern corner of New Mexico ([plate LXXXII]). The total area is over 11,000 square miles, of which about 650 square miles are in New Mexico; but it would be difficult to find a region of equal size and with an equal population where so large a proportion of the land is so nearly worthless. This condition has had an important effect on the people and their arts, and especially on their houses.