46 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuU. 188 



day schools of more conventional construction were built at Kaibito 

 and Kayenta. In addition a large outpatient clinic was instituted 

 at Kayenta. 



Perhaps the least important aspect of the Collier regime from the 

 standpoint of lasting effect, and yet the one which is destined to live 

 longest in the consciousness of ISTavahos, was the celebrated stock 

 reduction program. Navaho livestock holdings were reduced in toto 

 from some 1,250,000 sheep units to slightly less than half that figure. 

 The program made heavy inroads in the Shonto area as elsewhere, and 

 aroused bitter opposition on all sides ; yet the drastic livestock cutback 

 of the 1930's has been almost totally offset in the intervening 20 years 

 as a result of subsequent failure to enforce capacities. It is possible 

 that the nmxiber of livestock grazed in the Shonto area today actually 

 exceeds the number in 1936. Nevertheless, John Collier remains the 

 modern Navaho culture-villain at Shonto as throughout the reserva- 

 tion; "the man who took away our sheep." In 20 years, he and the 

 livestock program associated with his regime have supplanted 

 Kit Carson and the "long walk" as symbols of Navaho resentment, 

 and the military period of the 1860's has faded into the quaint un- 

 reality of folktale. 



To implement and perpetuate stock reduction, land administration 

 on the Navaho Keservation was decentralized to a degree never pre- 

 viously attempted. In 1937 the reservation was divided into 18 land- 

 management districts, each with a resident supervisor. The latter had 

 general jurisdiction over all livestock and agricultural operation 

 within his area, and was further intended to act as an intermediary 

 between local Navahos and the administration higher up. District 

 supervisors, even more than schoolteachers, became the first line of 

 contact between Navahos and the Indian Bureau. Shonto was selected 

 as the "capital" of Land Management District 2, which included also 

 Navajo Mountain, Paiute Mesa, Inscription House, Klethla Valley, 

 and a considerable portion of Black Mesa. A district supervisor was 

 resident at Shonto School from 1935 until 1949. 



"World War II brought much of the activity of the early Collier 

 regime to a halt. Curtaihnent of funds prevented further extension of 

 soil and moisture developments, and many projects had to be aban- 

 doned for lack of personnel. Automotive equipment had always 

 suffered unduly on the rough Navaho roads, and when adequate main- 

 tenance and replacement became impossible, day school operation 

 could not be continued. Several day schools closed down altogether, 

 and the remainder were converted to boarding schools by the hasty 

 addition of quonset-hut dormitories and expanded kitchen facilities. 

 Shonto School was so converted early in the war, and remains to this 

 day a boarding school. Converted day schools of this type are now 



