THE NAVAHO AND HIS HISTORY
Misunderstood, maligned, abused, despised, the Navaho has never stood
high in the estimation of those whites who did not know him. Yet he is
industrious, moral, honest, trustworthy, fairly truthful, religious,
and good to his wife and children. Not a weak list of virtues, even
though one has to detract from it by accusing him of ingratitude.
There are noble exceptions, of course, to this charge, but from what I
know and have seen, I am inclined to believe that many, if not most,
Navahoes have no sense of moral responsibility for favors and benefits
received.
Though, perhaps, not as interesting to study as the Hopis, there is
still a wonderful field open for the student who is willing to go
and live with the Navaho, learn his language, gain his confidence,
participate in all his ceremonies, and enter into his social and
domestic life.
No one has done this as much as Dr. Washington Matthews, whose "Navaho
Legends" is a revelation to those people who have hitherto held the
general ideas (propagated, too, by a scientific observer) so prevalent
about this long-suffering people.
That the Navaho was reserved with the white man in the early days
of American occupancy there can be no doubt, and the difficulty
experienced in penetrating that reserve is well exemplified by
reference to the letter of Dr. Joseph Letherman, who lived for three
years among the tribe at Fort Defiance. Aided by Major Kendrick, who
had long commanded at this post, he wrote a letter which appears in the
Smithsonian Report for 1855. In this he says, among many good things:
"Nothing can be learned of the origin of these people from themselves.
At one time they say they came out of the ground; and at another, that
they know nothing whatever of their origin; the latter, no doubt, being
the truth." Again: "Of their religion little or nothing is known, as,
indeed, all inquiries tend to show that they have none; and even have
not, we are informed, any word to express the idea of a Supreme Being.
We have not been able to learn that any observances of a religious
character exist among them; and the general impression of those who
have the means of knowing them is, that, in this respect, they are
steeped in the deepest degradation." Once more: "They have frequent
gatherings for dancing." And a little further on: "Their singing is but
a succession of grunts, and is anything but agreeable."
One has but to read what Dr. Matthews has written and gathered from
the Navahoes to see how misleading and erroneous the conclusions of
Dr. Letherman were. To quote: "He [Dr. Matthews] had not been many
weeks in New Mexico when he discovered that the dances to which the
doctor refers were religious ceremonials, and later he found that these
ceremonials might vie in allegory, symbolism, and intricacy of ritual
with the ceremonies of any people, ancient or modern. He found, ere
long, that these heathens, pronounced godless and legendless, possessed
lengthy myths and traditions--so numerous that one can never hope to
collect them all, a pantheon as well stocked with gods and heroes as
that of the ancient Greeks, and prayers which, for length and vain
repetition, might put a Pharisee to blush."
Wonderful songs also were found, full of poetic imagery, and suitable
for every conceivable occasion, songs that have been handed down for
generations. Of the sacred songs Dr. Matthews makes the astounding
statement that, "sometimes, pertaining to a single rite, there are two
hundred songs or more which may not be sung at other rites." Further:
"The songs must be known to the priest of the rite and his assistants
in a most exact manner, for an error made in singing a song may be
fatal to the efficacy of a ceremony. In no case is an important mistake
tolerated, and in some cases the error of a single syllable works an
irreparable injury."
Popular conceptions of the Navaho are very crude and inaccurate. They
are largely the result of two "floods of information" which deluged the
country at two epochs in their history, and neither of them had much
truth in the flood. The first of these epochs was at the discovery of
the important cliff dwellings located on their reservation,--those of
the Tsegi Canyon (the so-called Canyon de Chelly), Monument Canyon,
Chaco Canyon, etc. Writers who visited the region wrote the most wild
and outrageously conceived nonsense about this people and the dwellings
they were supposed to look upon with superstitious veneration. Then
later, a lot of unscrupulous whites, fired with similar zeal to that
which led the old conquistadors across the deserts of northern Mexico
and through the inhospitable wilds of Arizona and New Mexico,--the
zeal for gold or silver,--which was doubtless fed by the fact that
the Navahoes did possess thousands of dollars' worth of silver
ornaments, started out to prospect the interior recesses of the Navaho
reservation. Knowing by painful experience what this meant,--for
their "white brothers" had stolen their springs and arable land from
them on the Moenkopi, on the Little Colorado, at Willow Spring, and a
score of other places,--the warlike and courageous Navahoes resented
the presence of these men. They begged them to retire, and when the
white men refused, fought and whipped them. This naturally excited
the cupidity of the silver hunters more than ever. "Why should the
blanked Indians fight if not to protect their silver mines?"--this was
the kind of question asked, and the natural and legitimate resentment
of the Navahoes was described all over the country as "another Indian
uprising," and led to the second "flood of knowledge," which the
newspapers always have forthcoming when public interest and curiosity
are aroused.
[Illustration: NAVAHO SILVER NECKLACE AND BELT.
_In the collection of George Wharton James._]
[Illustration: HOPI PRAYER STICKS OR PAHOS.
_In the collection of George Wharton James._]
Hence the truth often comes as a wet blanket to the preconceived
notions of those who have drank deep from these earlier streams of
information!
Science and legend both agree in giving to the Navaho a mixed origin.
His is not a pure-blooded race. Their myths or legends refer to many
assimilations of other people, strangers from the North, South, East,
West, and everywhere, all of whom were welcomed and made an integral
part of the nation. Hence there is no such thing as a distinctly Navaho
type, or, as Hrdlicka puts it, "they show considerable difference in
color and measurement, and cannot be considered a radically homogeneous
people, but their mixture is not recent." This latter statement is
doubtless true, as they would probably become more clannish as their
nation grew in numbers and power.
Dr. Matthews gives the stories of the origin of several of the gentes.
One story which he does not relate was told to me at Tohatchi, and
serves to illustrate how a migration from the Northwest is transformed
into a supernatural occurrence. Though told to me of the Navahoes as a
whole, there can be no doubt that it applies only to a single gens. The
story was in regard to Winged Rock, commonly called by the whites "Ship
Rock," and about which I had been seeking information.
This rock is situated in the Navaho reservation, about one hundred
miles northwest of Tohatchi, and some fifteen or twenty miles from
Carrizo Mountain. It is difficult of access, and my informant assured
me that even though an army of white men should reach its base they
could never scale its steep sides and reach its top. All the Navaho
tribe reverence it sincerely and all watch and guard it jealously. He
would indeed be a brave white man who would dare the anger of these
warlike and brave natives if they forbade his approach and would
attempt to scale this sacred Winged Rock.
This was the legend: "Many, many years ago, when this country was young
and the sun cast only small shadows, my people came across the narrow
sea far away near the setting sun in the north and landed on the shores
of this country. The people where they landed were exceedingly angry
at them, and whenever they could they fell upon them and slew them. My
people did not want to go to war, but this inhospitable reception made
them angry, so they put themselves in war array and fell upon their
foes. But there were few only of my people, and their enemies were so
many that it was not long before they were in sad straits. Indeed, they
would soon have been entirely destroyed had not help come. In their
distress they called on Those Above, and soon a messenger from the sky
came to my people and said: 'See you yonder stone mountain? Flee to it.
It will be your salvation. Climb up its steep, strong, rugged sides
and it will carry you toward the land of the South sea, nearer to the
rising sun, and there your home shall be.'
"My people were only too glad to obey the message. They hastened
towards the mountain. Some who were weak were enabled to fly towards it
like birds, and they clung to its steep sides and clambered to its top.
"Then when they were all safe on its huge bulk, the monster rock was
taken by Those Above, and it arose and floated across the rivers and
plains and mountains and lakes and canyons. Several days and nights it
floated, and my people gazed with wonder upon the strange and wonderful
countries through which they travelled. Sometimes they thought they
would like to stay in this place or in that, but the wisdom of Those
Above said No! and the rock floated on. Oh! it was a glorious sail.
Never before or since has any people been so blessed and favored by the
People of the Shadows Above.
"Finally the Winged Rock crossed the great deep canyon of the Colorado
River, and my people were afraid of its vast depths. Then the rock
gently settled down to the earth, where it is now found, and our home
was reached. It did not seem to be a very beautiful land, but it was
given to us by Those Above, and my people soon became content. We were
shown the springs and the watercourses, and we found the mountains
covered with trees, and the rivers and creeks. So that when any one
speaks of our leaving our country we are afraid and we cry: 'No, why
should we leave this land given to us, and which we love? Yonder is the
rock on which we came, and never until that rock floats away with us
shall we leave the land that we love so well!'
"As soon as we were settled here, Those Above gave us some great
shamans, and one of them told us that we must always do right, for the
sun, when it rises, would watch our every action all throughout the
day, and when he went away at night it was to tell Those Above all our
evil actions, for which we should be punished."
While the Apaches and Navahoes are of the same stock, there have
always been marked differences between them so long as they have been
under the observation of the white men. When the Spaniards entered
the country, the Navahoes were more distinctly an agricultural people
than the Apaches. They had large patches of land under cultivation,
kept their crops and lived in houses underground. Cultivated lands
necessitated settled residences, and after the Spaniards introduced
sheep, it was not long before the Navahoes were extensive sheep
raisers. It would not be any wiser or more profitable to enter into an
inquiry as to the methods by which these flocks were acquired than it
would be to ascertain the history of many of the landed possessions
of European nobilities. With the Navaho, possession was the only law
he cared anything for. "To have and to hold" was his motto; and once
"having," he held pretty securely. Hence the sheep possessions of the
neighboring pueblo Indians were held by exceedingly precarious tenure.
[Illustration: AN AGED NAVAHO, LOOKING OVER THE PAINTED DESERT.]
[Illustration: AN OLD HOPI AT ORAIBI.]
And here we have, I believe, one of the additional sources of enmity
between the Navaho and the Spaniard. As their wards, the Spanish were
in duty bound to care for and protect the Pueblos. Thus Navaho and
Spaniard were ever at war, and when the Mexican came in the Spaniard's
stead the battle still continued on the same lines and with the same
ferocity.
It was on the 22d of January in 1849 that Lieut. J. H. Simpson,
afterwards General, started on that interesting trip of his through the
Navaho country, which has forever connected his name with these nomads.
He was not in command of the expedition, its head being Col. John M.
Washington, who was military and civil governor of New Mexico at the
time. The object of the expedition was to coerce the Navahoes into a
compliance with a treaty which they had made with the United States,
two years previously, and to extend the provisions of the treaty.
When they reached the Chaco Canyon trouble ripened between the soldiers
and the Navahoes, and the latter were fired upon, with the result that
seven were killed, including Narbona, their great warrior and chief.
This was but one of many such attacks upon the whites. Then as now,
only far more so, the Navahoes resented the intrusion of white people
in their territory; and having gained fire-arms, they used them to
deadly purpose upon those who slighted their will.
There is no doubt that the Navahoes were a source of great terror
to the Mexicans who first settled in and near their territory. Even
after the United States became their guardians at the acquisition of
New Mexico in 1847, they were very hostile, murders, robberies, and
depredations of every kind being quite common. In 1855, Dr. Letherman
reported that "the nation, as a nation, is fully imbued with the idea
that it is all powerful, which, no doubt, has arisen from the fact of
its having been for years a terror and a dread to the inhabitants of
New Mexico." But that these depredations were not perpetrated upon the
whites alone is evident from the fact that one of the richest men of
the Navahoes himself applied to Major Kendrick, then the commanding
officer of Fort Defiance, N. Mex., to protect his cattle, as he could
not otherwise prevent his own people from stealing them.
The insolence from years of this kind of free life needed forceful
check, but it was not until 1862 that the unbearable conduct of the
Navahoes brought upon themselves this long-needed chastisement.
According to governmental reports, the Indians of New Mexico (among
whom were the Navahoes and Mescalero Apaches) caused losses between
1860 and 1863 to the people of that territory of "not less than 500,000
sheep, and 5,000 horses, mules, and cattle. Over 200 lives have been
also sacrificed of citizens, soldiers, and shepherds." It was also
stated in 1863 "that the military establishment of this territory
[New Mexico, which then included Arizona], since its acquisition, has
cost not less than $3,000,000 annually, independent of land-warrant
bounties." And while this was for a conquered country, the whole
expenditure was for the chastisement of hostile Indians, every tribe of
which in turn came in for its share of the fighting.
It was openly advocated about this time that the policy of
extermination was the only one that could be followed, and this must
be brought about either by actual warfare, or by driving the hostiles
into the mountains and there starving them to death.
Brig.-Gen. J. H. Carleton, who was in control of the department of New
Mexico, determined upon a thorough and complete change in our treatment
of this haughty and proud people. They had made six treaties at
different times with officers of our Government and had violated them
before they could be ratified at Washington. He strongly counselled
drastic measures in a letter which is historically of sufficient
interest to justify a large quotation from it:--
"At the Bosque Redondo there is arable land enough for all the Indians
of this family [the Navahoes and Apaches have descended from the same
stock and speak the same language], and I would respectfully recommend
that now the war be vigorously prosecuted against the Navahoes; that
the only peace that can ever be made with them must rest on the basis
that they move on to these lands, and, like the Pueblos, become
an agricultural people, and cease to be nomads. This should be a
_sine qua non_; as soon as the snows of winter admonish them of the
sufferings to which their families will be exposed, I have great hopes
of getting most of the tribe. The knowledge of the perfidy of these
Navahoes, gained after two centuries of experience, is such as to lead
us to put no faith in their promises. They have no government to make
treaties; they are a patriarchal people. One set of families may make
promises, but the other set will not heed them. They understand the
direct application of force as a law; if its application be removed,
that moment they become lawless. This has been tried over and over
again, and at great expense. The purpose now is, never to relax the
application of force with a people that can no more be trusted than
the wolves that run through the mountains. To collect them together,
little by little, on to a reservation, away from the haunts and hills
and hiding-places of their country; there be kind to them; there teach
their children how to read and write; teach them the arts of peace,
teach them the truths of Christianity. Soon they will acquire new
habits, new ideas, and new modes of life; and the old Indians will
die off, and carry with them all latent longings for murdering and
robbing. The young ones will take their places without these longings,
and thus, little by little, they will become a happy and contented
people; and Navaho wars will be remembered only as something that
belong entirely to the past. Even until they can raise enough to be
self-sustaining, _you can feed them cheaper than fight them_....
"I know these ideas are practical and humane--are just to the
suffering people, as well as to the aggressive, perfidious, butchering
Navahoes. If I can have one more _full_ regiment of cavalry, and
authority to raise one independent company in each county of the
Territory, they can soon be carried to a final result."
In 1863 General Carleton's suggestions in the main were approved by the
Indian Department and he proceeded to carry out his plan.
Col. Kit Carson, the noted scout, with an adequate force was sent
out to humble and punish the Navahoes. It was wise that such a just,
humane, and wise Indian fighter was sent to do this work. His knowledge
of their characters stood him in good purpose, and in a very short
time over seven thousand prisoners were taken. Later this number was
increased, until they amounted to about ten or eleven thousand.
At the same time the Apaches were being cornered, and a number of them
were removed to Fort Stanton, on the Peeos River, far enough down into
the open country to prevent easy escape to the mountains. Part of
this settlement was the Bosque Redondo, and General Carleton's plan
contemplated the settlement of both Apaches and Navahoes here.
[Illustration: HOPI CEREMONIAL HEAD-DRESSES.
_In the collection of George Wharton James._]
[Illustration: HOPI BAHOS AND DANCE RATTLES.
_In the collection of George Wharton James._]
Compelled by a superior force, the now humbled Navahoes were herded
together like sheep and in 1863 were removed to the chosen place.
It was soon found, however, that this was an inhospitable region,
altogether unfitted to be the home of so large a population. The water
was alkaline, and the soil not of a nature suitable to the raising of
corn. There was practically no fuel, and the Navahoes had to dig up
mesquite roots and carry them on their backs twelve miles for this
purpose. In two or three years more than one-fourth of their number
died and the remainder grew more and more dissatisfied with the
location.
In 1867, however, Manuelito and Barboncita, two of the war chiefs, came
into the reservation, both of them having surrendered to the commandant
at Fort Wingate. The former had refused to come into the reservation in
1863, and the latter ran away from it, with his band of warriors, in
1864. These two bands added 780 more of men, women, and children to the
population, which, in June, 1867, was reported to be 7,300.
This whole Bosque Redondo was a disgraceful business, on a line with so
much of the wretched and abominable treatment the Indians have received
at our hands. Think of placing ten thousand Indians upon a reservation
where there was no water but black, brackish stuff not fit for cattle,
no fuel, and no soil for cultivation of the chief article of their
diet. Deprived of food, water, and fuel, what would white men be? No
wonder the Navahoes rebelled and were kept in order only by brute force.
At length those in authority saw the iniquity of the proceeding and the
order was given to return them to their reservation. This was done,
but with a loss by death, mainly through preventable causes, of over
three thousand souls.
Since this time they have been industrious and progressive. The Bosque
lesson, though severe, was needed, and it proved salutary. One can
travel with perfect safety unarmed across the Navaho reservation, as I
have done several times; and a lady friend, unarmed, and unaccompanied
by any other escort than a Navaho, has travelled hundreds of miles in
perfect safety among the Navahoes in all parts of their reservation.[3]
[3] Since writing the above, however, a sad event has transpired which
leads me to modify my statement. A young lady missionary, riding alone,
was criminally assaulted by a Navaho, and almost brought to death's
door. When I heard of it Navahoes were hunting for the culprit. It is
to be hoped he will be found and severely punished.
In September, 1870, a number of dissatisfied Utes visited the Navahoes
at the so-called "Navaho Church," which can be seen on the right on the
line of the Santa Fé Railway, going to California. All the principal
chiefs of the tribe were present and the causes of dissatisfaction
against the whites were fully discussed. The powwow was an important
one, and lasted several days, but the chief purpose of the Utes--to
incite the Navahoes to warfare against the whites--was not successful.
The crafty Utes, with stirring eloquence, said they had heard the white
men saying they were going to take possession of the whole country,
and that when they did they would kill off all the chief men of the
Navahoes. "See how they have stolen in upon your territory and taken
the springs and land that you have had all the time up till now! They
have taken the water and land at Wingate and at Defiance, and soon
they will take all you have, and you and your children will perish
because you have no water, no grass for your horses and sheep, and no
corn for food. Join in with us and drive these hated people away. Get
all the guns and ammunition you can, and prepare many new bows and
arrows. Let us sing the war songs together, and go on the war-path
and hunt down and kill the whites as the Pueblos hunt down and kill
rabbits. Then we will be friends. You will have your country to
yourselves, and Those Above will make of you a great nation. We shall
have our country and we shall become great. Now we are dwindling down;
we are melting away as the snows on the hillside. United against the
whites we shall both become stronger, and grow like the well-watered
corn."
The Navahoes refused to give answer until they had consulted among
themselves, and then one of their chiefs reported their decision as
follows: "We have heard what our Ute brothers have said. If our white
brothers want to kill us they can do so. They have had plenty of
chances and we are yet alive. All of our people who have been slain
have been those who have gone on the war-path against them in the past.
We do not wish to die, so we will not go on the war-path. We will stay
at home. We have food. The whites treat us well. If our Ute brothers
must fight we will not interfere, but we ourselves do not wish to
fight."
The result was that the Ute bands returned to their homes without any
specific act of warfare at that time.