There finally was agreement that Navajos should go north of the river
only for horse trading, or upon necessary errands, and that when they did
go, they would be made safe and welcome, this additionally secure, if
they were to go first to Hamblin.
The Hopi and the Navajo, at that time, and probably for many years
before, were unfriendly. There was a tale how the Hopi had attacked 35
Navajos, disarmed them, and then had thrown them off a high cliff between
two of their towns. Hamblin went to the place indicated and found a
number of skeletons and remains of blankets and understood that the deed
had been done the year before. The Navajo had plundered the Hopi for
generations and the latter had retaliated.
Hamblin's diary gives the great Navajo council as in 1871. There also is
much confusion of dates in several records of the time. But the year
appears to be definitely established through the fact that Powell was in
Salt Lake in October and November of 1871. It is a curious fact, also,
that Powell, in his own narrative of the 1870 trip, makes no reference to
Hamblin's presence with him south of the river or even to the dramatic
circumstances of the great council, set by Hamblin and Dellenbaugh on
November 2. Powell's diary places him at Fort Defiance October 31, 1870,
and at a point near Fort Wingate November 2.