EXTRACTS 



THE CORRESPONDENCE 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 



Sketch of the Navajo Tribe of Indians, Territory of Neiu 3Iexico, hy 

 Jona. Letherman, Assistant Surgeon U. S. Army, 



The Navajo Indians are a tribe inhabiting a district in the Territory 

 of New Mexico, lying between the San Juan river on the north and 

 northeast, the Pueblo of Zuiii on the south, the Moqui villages on the 

 west, and the ridge of land dividing the waters which flow into the 

 Atlantic ocean from those which flow into the Pacific on the east — 

 giving an area of about twelve thousand (12,000) square miles. The 

 Navajoes can muster from twfenty-five hundred (2,500) to three thou- 

 sand (3,000) mounted warriors. 



The great and distinguishing feature of the country occupied by 

 these people is the mountains. The entire country is composed of 

 them and the intervening valleys — their general direction being north 

 and south, with slight eastwardly and westwardly variation. They 

 are broken in many j)laces into deep ravines and caiions, which, for 

 the most part, run perpendicularly to the general direction of the 

 mountain. These canons afford, in many places, the only means of 

 traversing the country, unless with great difficulty and labor. On 

 their eastern aspect, these mountains present a slope which can be 

 ascended without much trouble, having an angle of elevation of 

 twenty, twenty-five, or thirty degrees ; but on the western side the 

 descent is generally abrupt and often impassable, presenting a perpen- 

 dicular wall of rock from three hundred (300) to four hundred (400) 

 or more, feet in height. The top of the mountain is frequently leva 

 to a great extent, forming the table-land, or mesas, in the parlance of 

 the Slexicans. The appearance, looking west from the top of a high 

 mountain, is that of a succession of comparatively gentle slopes, rising 

 one after another. Looking east from the same mountain a series of 

 high escarpments is seen as far as vision extends. These mountains 

 are chiefly composed of sandstone — rocks, in all probability, belong- 

 ing to the period of the "new-red sandstone" and carboniferous form- 

 ation. It is generally soft and friable ; some, however, being found 

 suitable for building purposes in this altitude and climate, but not 



