Arizona School Yearbooks by County
(Note: This article first appeared in the Holbrook Tribune-News on Dec. 30, 1932.)
The Navajo country! How frequently we hear this expression today. We instantly think of the Navajo Reservation in western New Mexico and eastern Arizona, an area larger than the whole state of West Virginia, a region of vast stretches of grassland and cedar-covered hills and mesas where there is very little water, and where there are many picturesque Navajos on horseback tending flocks of sheep, ever moving hither and yon in search of forage. But it has not always been so!
To the west of the Rio Grande River in New Mexico, high mountains divide the river valley from the open plateau country which extends westward into Arizona. Through the mountains west of the Rio Grande there are three gateways which were important in Navajo history: The river valleys of the Chama, the Jemez and the Puerco of the east.
In 1626 when the Navajos first appear in written history, Spanish colonists and priests had penetrated the whole of the Rio Grande valley as far north as Taos. At this time, the Navajos (Apaches de Nabahu) lived on the upper Chama River in an open grassland region, northwest of the pueblo of Santa Clara and some 70 miles northwest of Santa Fe. In 1630, Father Benavides, in a report to Phillip IV of Spain describing the customs of the natives of New Mexico, stated that the Navajos practiced agriculture to some extent and also hunting. He established a mission at Santa Clara pueblo at the mouth of the Chama "adjoining the Navajo country" so that these Indians might be visited and converted to Christianity. Thus it seems that the Navajos were peaceful people practicing agriculture and hunting, and bothering no one.
During the next 50 years, hardly any mention is made of Navajos in Spanish documents, but the years from 1630 to 1680, and the 20 years afterwards, were to prove the most important in their whole history, for during that time they acquired horses.
Previous to the coming of the Spanish, the Indians of the Southwest had no domestic animals except the dog and the turkey. The Pueblo Indians of the Rio Grande, the Zuni and the Hopi lived in masonry houses and raised corn and other foods. Surrounding them at some distance lived nomadic Indians who may have practiced agriculture to some extent, but lived mostly by hunting. Pueblos and nomads alike had only bows and arrows for weapons. It was practically impossible for nomadic peoples on foot to successfully besiege a masonry pueblo, because they could not carry sufficient food. The Pueblos also kept an extra year's supply of corn stored away so that they had plenty of food in case of attack. The Pueblos were not bothered by nomads at this time, and they lived together in comparative peace.
As we have seen, the Spanish with their missionary zeal made contacts with the Navajos in 1629, and, in 1675, Governor Otermin opened communication with the Utes, who then lived in the grasslands of the San Luis valley northwest of Taos. This meant that trade was soon established with these peoples, and before long they had acquired horses and sheep. It was the horses which brought about the greatest change in the lives of the Navajos, and which both directly and indirectly were the cause of their western movement. The Navajos were probably among the first Indians after the Pueblos to acquire horses, and after them the Utes and so on. Horses became more and more widely distributed like the ripples caused by a pebble dropped in a pond, but the ripples returned like a tidal wave which was later to cause the Spanish, Mexican and American governments a considerable amount of trouble.
With horses came undreamed of rapidity of movement, and consequently power. On horseback, it was easy for nomads to raid a Spanish town or Indian pueblo, for they came, and before a counter- attack could be prepared, departed like the wind. The nomads could then carry sufficient food, and they could leave their families at a safe distance.
Sheep, too, played an important part in furthering the nomadism of Navajo life, because having acquired food "on the hoof," which could be moved around the country, they no longer needed to depend on crops, which would have held them in one place, or on hunting. Moreover, sheep allowed them to inhabit in fairly large numbers the plateau country where game was sparse and where agriculture was impossible.
Following the use of horses by nomads, the Spanish and pueblo towns became the magnets which drew in nomads from the surrounding country. Sudden raids were made on settlements for the purpose of obtaining food, horses or slaves. In 1675, as we have seen, the Utes occupied the upper Rio Grande plains near the present border of Colorado. About that time, no Navajos were mentioned in connection with the Santa Clara Mission, showing that they were not in the region. From this, we judge that the Utes had penetrated down into the Rio Grande valley and had cut off the Navajos' Chama gateway to the settlements.
In 1700, the Jicarilla Apaches first appeared, coming in probably from the east, and following down the Rio Grande, and in 1716, the Comanches arrived at Taos. Thus nomadic peoples from the northwest and the east, all having horses, were being irresistibly drawn in by the relatively rich Spanish and pueblo towns, from which loot could so easily be taken. Each incoming group pushed ahead of it the group which had preceded it.
To return to the Navajos, in 1680, the Pueblos revolted against the Spanish, driving them out of New Mexico. The Navajos and Utes took no part in this revolt, but, during the 12 years the Spanish were absent, they preyed upon the disrupted Pueblos.
About this time the Navajos began to spread westward. When DeVargas came to Santa Fe in 1692 to re-establish the Spanish rule, he made a journey to the Hopi Country. The Hopis would not receive him, having been advised by the Navajos not to trust him. This marks the first recorded contact of the Hopi and the Navajo. The Navajos still lived on the upper Chama and perhaps in the region of Jemez Pueblo.
From 1700 to 1725, we find that the Navajos had gone southward, and were beginning to raid Spanish and Indian pueblos by way of the Jemez River gateway. The pueblo of Jemez was the buffer and the Navajos made innumerable attacks on it, requiring many Spanish expeditions against them. However, the Utes were hard on their heels, for in 1724, we find that they in turn were attacking Jemez. The Utes were being pushed westward by the Jicarilla Apaches, behind whom were the Comanches.
Twenty years later, in 1744, two padres went by way of Jemez into "the Navajo country," where they found the Indians apparently eager to become Christians. In 1746, it was proposed to found four missions for their conversion, but wars between the Navajos and the Utes interfered, showing that the Utes were still close behind. In 1749, two missions, of short duration, were established at Cebolleta and Encinal in the Laguna district instead of "in the far north or Navajo country proper." At this time, it seems that the main body of the Navajos lived in the region north of Mt. Taylor. In 1786, the Commander General of the Interior Provinces of New Spain reported that the Navajo nation had five divisions: San Mateo (northwest of Mt. Taylor), Cebolleta (southeast of Mt. Taylor), Chuscca Mountains, Ojo del Oso (Bear Spring, the present Fort Wingate) and Canyon de Chelly.
In 1803, the Navajos were hostile to the Spanish in spite of the efforts of frontier garrisons, for they were then entrenched in Canyon de Chelly, where they deemed their position impregnable. Expeditions were sent against them, finally reducing them to submission. This is the first mention of this canyon as a stronghold. In 1819, some of the Navajos, being hard pressed by the Spanish, settled near the Hopi towns, and the Hopis came to Santa Fe to ask aid against them, for these dreaded marauders had long preyed upon them. This is the first record of a Navajo settlement near the Hopi. How long they continued to live in this region, we cannot say. In 1858, when Ives visited the Hopis, Navajos were trading and raiding there, but did not appear to live very close.
In 1822, Mexico revolted from Spain and declared her independence. During the years of Mexican rule, 1822-1846, practically no military organization existed in New Mexico. The Navajos, who had been fairly peaceful for a long time and having been held in check by Spanish soldiers and bribes, became hostile now that there was no force to stop them. The period is filled with records of Navajo wars, and treaties which were soon broken. The tidal wave of Navajos rolled back to the Rio Grande through the Chama, Jemez and Puerco valleys, and raids were made on every town from Socorro to Taos.
In 1846, the American army under General Kearny took Santa Fe. In less that two months, the first American expedition against the Navajos had raided Socorro and General Kearney in his treaty had promised to protect all the New Mexican settlements from their enemies. The Navajos were then living in the great territory between the San Juan River and the Mt. Taylor region, their principle habitation being in the Chusca Mountains. From 1846 to 1863, the American government in the New Mexican territory was not very strong. Navajo bands were spread all over the country and continually raided the settlements. Innumerable expeditions were sent out by the government against them, and wars and subsequent treaties were continuous. Each marauding band of Navajos acted as a separate unit, and while one band signed a treaty of peace in good faith, other bands continued to raid. The Navajos were gradually pushed into their own country, although raids continued.
In 1863, Col. Kit Carson and the New Mexico Volunteers (all regular troops were then engaged in the Civil War) were ordered to the Navajo country, and the plan of removing all Navajos to Bosque Redondo in New Mexico was developed. In 1864, Carson marched to Canyon de Chelly. There were no great fights or victories, for the Navajos were practically starved into submission. They soon saw that the Americans were in earnest and though only a few were captured, many of them surrendered, and 7,000 of them were soon taken to Bosque Redondo, where they were held until 1868. An old Navajo, now living in Tuba City, said that when the Carson campaign began, his family lived near Keams Canyon, and they were the farthest west of the Navajo. Carson did not begin to capture all the Navajos and many fled to the deep canyons in the north, the tributaries of the San Juan and Colorado rivers, and some went westward and made their first contact with the Havasupai of Cataract Canyon. In 1864, they attacked some Mormons at Kanab in southern Utah.
Bosque Redondo (Fort Sumner, on the Pecos River, 150 miles southeast of Santa Fe) proved to be an expensive and unsuitable place to keep a large number of nomadic Navajos, and a treaty was made with them in 1870 establishing a reservation on the boundary of New Mexico and Arizona, with Fort Defiance as the agency. It was immediately noted that the reservation was much too small and most of the Navajos did not live on it. The first extension of the reservation came in 1878. The Hopi Reservation, providing for both Hopis and Navajos, was proclaimed in 1882. In 1884 came the last large expansion, which extended the reservation to nearly its present western limit. Since then, a number of small areas have been added, until now the very limit of available land has been reached, and the Navajo country has attained its greatest possible extension.
Thus, the Navajos, who in the first records are said to have lived on the upper Chama River in New Mexico, acquired great power with their horses. Then, being hard pressed by the Utes, they moved south and west. In the eighteenth and the first part of the nineteenth centuries, they were held in check beyond the line of Spanish settlement, i.e. in northwestern New Mexico, by Spanish garrisons. As soon as the Spanish power came to an end and the weak Mexican rule began, they swept eastward to the Rio Grande, where their depredations continued until the American troops again pushed them westward. Their captivity at Bosque Redondo brought an end to their marauding.
Since the Navajo Reservation was created with perhaps 10,000 Navajos, their population has increased more than four times (1930-40,862). From a small group, they have become the largest Indian tribe occupying the largest reservation in the United States.
