90 HORAT[0 HALE ON LANGUAGE 



man a certain amount of shell money. If this offer is accepted, they exchange moneys, not 

 necessarily in equal amounts, and perfect friendship is restored." 



An able and impartial historian, Mr. J. P. Dunn, gives a closely similar account of 

 the Navajos.' One characteristic of this people, he tells us, " is their form of government, 

 or rather their lack of government. When they came under our control they numbered 

 about 12,000, of whom 2,.500 were warriors ; but, notwithstanding their numbers, and the 

 extent of country they occupied, they had scarcely any central controlling power, and 

 what power there was, was on a democratic basis. No particular form of government 

 obtained among them, a man having as absolute control over his children while they 

 lived with him as of his slaves ; but once a warrior, a man was his own master, and once 

 married, a woman was largely her own mistress. Head-chiefs were made and unmade 

 with little ceremony, and the pledges of a head-chief appeared to have little weight, either 

 while he was in office or afterwards. On account of this lack of executive power, there 

 was no enforcement of law, and little law to enforce. Religious scruples were the chief 

 restraining power." "Major Backus," we are told, "once asked a Navajo chief how they 

 punished their people for theft. ' Not at all,' he replied. ' If I attempt to whip a poor 

 man who has stolen my property, he will defend himself with his arrows and will rob 

 me again. If I leave him alone, he will only take what he requires for the time.' " 



It is a point of much interest to ascertain in what degree a people of these peculiar 

 characteristics, differing so widely in certain respects from most American tribes — brave 

 and independent, but neither cruel nor revengeful, — intelligent, ingenious, industrious, 

 eager for acquiring property, yet with no law but usage, and no means of enforcing this 

 usage beyond the influence of public opinion and of their own religion — have thriven in 

 the agitated world of "Western America, where lawless force or forceful law alternately 

 dominate all other communities. This result we learn from the latest and best authority, 

 the Reports of the U. S. Commissioner for Indian Affairs. 



In 1889 the tribe was computed by the local agent to number some 21,000 souls, or 

 about the twelfth part of all the Indians in the United States, exclusive of Alaska. 

 Twenty years earlier their number was computed at only 13,000, showing a remarkable 

 increase. That this increase was uatural, and not due to accessions from other tribes, is 

 made evident by the " vital statistics," which return for the previous year 1,400 births to 

 700 deaths. Their vast reservation of 3,500 square miles — as large as some European 

 kingdoms — is spread over a mountain region elevated six thousand feet above the sea, 

 and " for picturesque grandeur not to be excelled in the United States." But of their 

 more than two millions of acres, only some sixty thousand could be cultivated, and those 

 only by artificial irrigation. The Indians, however, had managed to till about eight 

 thousand acres, on which they raised good crops of wheat, maize, potatoes, melons, onions, 

 and other vegetables. But the mountains afford abundant pasturage, and the wealth of 

 the people is in their " stock." They owned in 1889 the immense number of 250,000 

 horses, 700,000 sheep, and 200,000 goats. " By common consent," the agent writes, " the 

 sheep are considered the property of the women, and are clipped in the spring and fall of 

 each year." The wool crop of the previous year had exceeded two millions of pounds, 

 most of which, after reserving the needed supply for wearing, they had sold to the white 



• " Massacres of the Mountains : a History of the Indian Wars of the Far West." By J. P. Dunn, jr. (1886) ; 

 p. 254. 



