52 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 188 



Mesa were remarked on by Captain Walker in 1859 (Van Valken- 

 burgh and McPhee, 1938, p. 16), and they have been exploited in 

 the past 20 years by enterprising Navaho families from Kayenta and 

 Cow Springs, the product being sold to local schools and trading 

 posts. 



It is uranium, however, that has given the whole San Juan Basin 

 new economic significance, and the part which it may play in the 

 future life of Slionto remains to be determined. The year 1956 finds 

 the community once again undergoing a process of economic transi- 

 tion. Wage work opportunities off the reservation are declining. 

 Participation in seasonal agricultural work has almost ceased, and 

 there are warnings of an impending curtailment in the demand for 

 railroad way labor. In such circumstances interest focuses increas- 

 ingly upon the possible future economic develoj)ment of the reserva- 

 tion itself. 



Uranium developments in the Navaho country have so far been 

 mostly north and east of Kayenta, where several paying mines are 

 now in operation. As of 1955 they were providing a source of steady 

 employment for over 100 families in the surrounding area. No Nav- 

 ahos from the Shonto region are employed in them, and up to the 

 present there has been a marked tendency on the part of Monument 

 Valley Navahos to resent the intrusion of outsiders into the mining 

 industry in their area. 



Significant uranium deposits have yet to be discovered west of 

 Marsh Pass, despite sporadic prospecting. Nevertheless, the Rare 

 Metals Corporation of America, a recently formed subsidiary of the 

 farflung El Paso Natural Gas Co., has obtained a permit to prospect 

 throughout the far western portion of the Navaho Reservation and has 

 already constructed a complete ore reduction plant, along with perma- 

 nent housing for some two dozen families, along the road from Tuba 

 City to Red Lake. Prospecting continues in the Shonto area and on 

 Black Mesa, and there is at least some possibility that a local mining 

 industry may in the future be as important to Shonto as it now is to 

 Monument Valley and Dennehotso. 



SHONTO IN 19 55 



Modem Shonto community has a surface area of approximately 230 

 square miles, equal to 147,200 acres. Navaho population at the end 

 of 1955 numbered 568 individuals, belonging to 100 households and 

 38 residence groups (see "Social Structure," pp. 54r-65). Population 

 density averaged 2.47 persons per square mile. Dividing the total 

 area by the number of households included, the average land area per 

 household was 2.30 square miles or 1.472 acres. Average area per 

 residence group was 6.05 square miles, equal to 3,874 acres. 



