120 SADDLE AND CAMP 



captivity until 1867, when they were returned 

 to their original country and liberated, and 

 flocks of sheep were given them by the govern- 

 ment. They have never since gone upon the 

 warpath. 



The tribe numbered 7,300 at the time they 

 were liberated. In 1900 they had increased to 

 upwards of 20,000, and in 1910 to approxi- 

 mately 35,000. This large increase in numbers 

 is undoubtedly due to the fact that they have 

 been permitted to remain in their original 

 country and to maintain their normal habits 

 and methods of life, in a wide and ample ter- 

 ritory. Their reservation, chiefly desert land, 

 lying at an average altitude of 6,000 feet above 

 the sea, has little or no attraction to the white 

 settler. It includes an area of 9,503,763 acres, 

 practically no part of which is adapted to agri- 

 culture. It offers, however, fair pasturage for 

 sheep and goats, in which animals the Navajos 

 are rich and from the sale of wool and blankets 

 enjoy a regular income, which enables them to 

 live comfortably and without privation. 



It is said that in a raid upon an early Span- 

 ish settlement on the Rio Grande, they secured 

 their first flock of sheep. Pueblo women doubt- 

 less taught them the art of weaving blankets 

 from the wool, and thus they developed the 



