Navajo Nation

“ Indeed, when providing instructions to the Indian Peace Commission about how they should negotiate with the Navajo, the Secretary of the Interior discussed the possibility of agriculture as bearing on the appropriate size of the Tribe’s reservation. Unlike the Navajo, he thought, “ ‘ [w] ild Indians cannot at once be transformed into farmers. They must pass through the intermediate stage of herdsmen. They must first become pastoral, then agricultural.’ ” Id., at 269.
Despite all this, “ [f] or the Navajos the treaty signified not defeat, but victory, and not disappearance, but continuation.” ”

“ The Navajos lived within a discrete portion of that expansive and newly American territory. For the next two decades, however, the United States and the Navajos periodically waged war against one another. In 1868, the United States and the Navajos agreed to a peace treaty. In exchange for the Navajos’ promise not to engage in further war, the United States established a large reservation for the Navajos in their original homeland in the western United States. ”

“ With a better and more dependable food supply population increased, people began to be more sedentary, crafts improved, and more permanent homes were built. By A. D. 1100 large villages of several hundred people each had been developed, as well as many smaller communities.
As time passed, three cultural centers—really prehistoric tribes—had differentiated from each other: the Chaco Canyon group, in northwestern New Mexico; the Mesa Verde, in southwestern Colorado; and the Kayenta, in northeastern Arizona.
The three cliff dwellings of Navajo National Monument represent this third group. ”

“ It was as if every blade of grass, every leaf of sage, every twig of cedar, the flowers, the trees, the rocks came to life at sight of the sun. The red disk rose, and a golden fire burned over the glowing face of that lonely waste.
The Navajo, dark, stately, inscrutable, faced the sun—his god. This was his Great Spirit. The desert was his mother, but the sun was his life. To the keeper of the winds and rains, to the master of light, to the maker of fire, to the giver of life the Navajo sent up his prayer:
Of all the good things of the Earth let me always have plenty. ”

“ They have always been the enemies of the Pueblo Indians, who are descendants of the Toltec and Aztec races. Unlike the Pueblo Indians, who live in villages and maintain themselves with agricultural pursuits, the Navajos are nomads and born herdsmen.
The Navajo tribe is quite wealthy now, as they possess many thousands of sheep and goats, and they are famed for their quaint and beautiful blankets and homespun, which they weave on their hand looms from the wool of their sheep. ”

“ The Navajos used to fight with other tribes, and then they were stronger men than they are to-day.
"But leaving religion, greed, and war out of the question, contact with the white man would alone have ruined the Indian. ”

“ Glen Naspa is gone."
"Gone! Where? Nas Ta Bega, remember I lost my own faith, and I have not yet learned yours."
"The Navajo has one mother—the earth. Her body has gone to the earth and it will become dust. But her spirit is in the air. It shall whisper to me from the wind. I shall hear it on running waters. It will hide in the morning music of a mocking-bird and in the lonely night cry of the canyon hawk. Her blood will go to make the red of the Indian flowers and her soul will rest at midnight in the lily that opens only to the moon. ”

“ I have heard it said by old-timers, and they could very nearly prove their suspicions through comparison of customs and the dragging in of the Bible, that the Navajo are the Jews of the Desert, a lost tribe of Israel. And suffice it to say that the true son of David has never been able to prosper in their country. The closest approach of these wanderers to the Navajo has been an invasion by marriage of a certain part of the Pueblo Indian country in New Mexico. Those who once made the effort to penetrate the Hopi-Navajo area of the Enchanted Empire have withdrawn, defeated and outwitted. ”

“ A Navajo will not look into the face of the mother of his wife; when they talk together he looks on the ground or in another direction. It is said a Navajo once forgot himself and, looking up, became blind. They believe that the souls of the women of their tribe enter fish when they leave this world; and they rarely eat fish for that reason. Indian customs and manners are taught to their children with just as much earnestness as white people teach their little ones.
All the Pueblos make curious images or dolls of clay. ”

“ Only fifteen years ago the Navajos came down into the valley through the canyon which the Denver and Rio Grande line now traverses, but the Mormons were better prepared than the Spanish missionaries, and hunted the Navajo soul out of the Indians, so that Spanish Fork is now the second largest settlement in the valley, and the Indians come there begging. They are all of the "tickaboo" and "good Injun" sort, the "how-how" mendicants of the period. All the inhabitants are as good an illustration of the advantages of co-operation in stores, farm-work, mills—everything—as can well be adduced. ”

“ The Navajo had strange customs. Among them the women owned the sheep, the goats, the hogan and the children. The men owned the horses, and the hunting weapons, along with the turquoise jewelry they wore. Horses to a Navajo were the same as gold to a26 white man, they were his measure of wealth and standing. So the Navajo men stalked the wild bands, capturing colts and mares to add to their wealth.
The Navajos knew every water hole in the desert. Like the tawny cougar and the savage lobo, they knew the wild bands must drink, that sooner or later they must slip down to the water hole. ”

“ It may be safely stated that with no native tribe in America, north of the Mexican boundary, has the art of weaving been carried to greater perfection than among the Navajos, while with none in the entire continent is it less Europeanized. As in language, habits, and opinions, so in arts, the Navajos have been less influenced than their sedentary neighbors of the pueblos by the civilization of the Old World. ”

“ Full a hundred strong were they, a silent, lean-limbed desert troop.
“The White Prophet's fires burned bright,” said the chieftain. “Eschtah is here.”
“The Navajo is a friend,” replied Naab. “The white man needs counsel and help. He has fallen upon evil days.”
“Eschtah sees war in the eyes of his friend.”
“War, chief, war! Let the Navajo and his warriors rest and eat. Then we shall speak.”
A single command from the Navajo broke the waiting files of warriors. Mustangs were turned into the fields, packs were unstrapped from the burros, blankets spread under the cottonwoods. ”

“ As soon as the snows of winter admonish them of the suffering to which their families will be exposed—I have great hopes of getting most of the tribe. The knowledge of the perfidy of these Navajoes, gained after two centuries of experience, is such as to lead us to put no faith in their promises. ”

“ When he got within sight of his house his people made him stop and told him not to approach nearer until they had summoned a Navajo shaman. When the latter, whose name was Red Queue, came, ceremonies were performed over the returned wanderer, and he was washed from head to foot and dried with corn meal; for thus do the Navajo treat all who return to their homes from captivity with another tribe, in order that all alien substances and influences may be removed from them. ”

“ The Indian and the white man cannot mix. The Indian brave learns the habits of the white man, acquires his diseases, and has not the mind or body to withstand them. The Indian girl learns to love the white man—and that is death of her Indian soul, if not of life.
"So the red man is passing. Tribes once powerful have died in the life of Nas Ta Bega. The curse of the white man is already heavy upon my race in the south. Here in the north, in the wildest corner of the desert, chased here by the great soldier, Carson, the Navajo has made his last stand. ”

“ Singing, rattling, and cries of “Thòhay!” were heard. In a few minutes the circle opened and the hewn plank, standing upright on a small Navajo blanket, without any apparent prop or support, was disclosed to view. At the base of the plank was the basket holding the figure of the sun. Singing was continued and so were the uproarious cries of “Thòhay”—cries anxious, cries appealing, cries commanding—while the bearer of the rattle stood facing the pole and rattling vigorously at it. ”

“ Many tribesmen remained free and continued to raid settlements. On April 9, 1864, the very day that the Governor of New Mexico had set aside to celebrate the end of the Navajo war, a band of Navajos stole 40 head of cattle from Laguna Pueblo, 140 miles southwest of Canyon de Chelly. Those who surrendered endured extreme hardship at Fort Sumner from disease, crop failure, famine, and their sense of exile from their homeland. After 4 years, the several thousand reservation Navajos were broken in body and spirit, while their still-free tribesmen continued their troublesome guerrilla activities. ”

“ Then there was a sound as of footsteps at the door, and the white lightning entered through the smoke-hole and circled around the lodge, hanging over the heads of the council. But the Ute heard not the voice which the Navajo heard and saw not the vision he beheld. Soon the Yàybichy (Qastcèëlçi) entered the lodge and standing on the white lightning, said: “What is the matter with you, my grandchild? You take no thought about anything. Something you must do for yourself, or else, in the morning you will be whipped to death—that is what the council has decided. ”

“ I immediately informed the chiefs that I wished them to talk the matter over among themselves and meet Captain Hamblin and myself in a council at the agency in four days. This was done and we, today, have had a long talk. The best of feeling existed. And the chiefs and good men of the Navajo Indians pledge themselves that no more Navajos will be allowed to go into Utah; and that they will not, under any circumstances, allow any more depredations to be committed by their people. ”

“ The Navajos, as a rule, are not a tall race, although there is one living about two miles from town who is over six feet. His white friends call him "Lengthy." The squaw who went to the World's Fair as being the best Navajo blanket-maker of the tribe has two photographs, one of herself and another squaw, and one of the Government Building which was at the Fair, which she delights in showing to every one that goes to her hut. ”

“ Water is scarce, and difficult to be found by those not acquainted with the country, affording them another natural safeguard against invasion. Their numbers are variously estimated at from one to two thousand families, or about fourteen thousand souls. The Navajos, so far as I am informed, are the only nation on the continent having intercourse with white men, that are increasing in numbers. They have in their possession many prisoners, men, women, and children, taken from the settlements of this territory, whom they hold and treat as slaves. ”

“ I herewith return, without approval, House bill No. 4001, entitled "An act authorizing the rights of settlers on the Navajo Indian Reservation, Territory of Arizona." My objections to the bill are embodied in the following statement:
This tribe has a population of about 20,500 souls, of whom 1,000 dress in the manner of white men, 250 can read, and 500 use enough English for ordinary conversation. Last year they cultivated 8,000 acres, and possessed approximately 1,000,000 sheep, 250,000 goats, 100,500 cattle, 1,200 swine, and very considerable herds of horses and ponies. ”

“ You are always visiting where you are not welcome.” The gods replied: “Be not angry with us. This is a Navajo who was a captive among the Ute, but he has escaped and has suffered much. I‘¢nì‘ (the Lightning) has bidden us to take him to the homes of all the ¢igìni (holy ones, supernatural beings) ; therefore we have brought him here.” “It is well,” said the squirrels; “but he is hungry and must have some food.” They brought him piñon nuts, pine nuts, spruce nuts, and service berries ”

“ He told them all he knew about the swift couriers and all the grandmother had told him. He remarked that there were yet many who could not believe that the young men had made the journey; so, to satisfy all, he proposed that within twelve days they should have a race between the two fleet akáninili around the base of Tsòtsil, if all would agree to reassemble to witness it, and he begged them to invite their neighbors of the Pueblo and other tribes to come with them. Then other chiefs arose to speak. In the end the proposition of the Navajo chief was agreed to. ”

“ There is the legend of "the spider maid" teaching the Navajos to weave their wonderful blankets, though the Hopi deny this and assert that their women captured in war were the ones who taught the Navajos the art of weaving. There is the picture of the Navajo transmigration of souls up the twelve degrees of a huge corn stalk, for all the world like the Hindoo legend of a soul's travail up to life. You must not forget how similar many of the Indian [Pg 113] drawings are to Oriental work. ”

“ Soon the voices of the pursuing Ute were again heard around the rock and at the mouth of the den, and the Navajo sat a long time 401 in silence listening to them. After a while the rat woman said to him, “You seem to be tired and hungry. Will you have something to eat?” ”