238 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuU. 188 



feature in the history of intercultural relations in the western area is 

 that they do not begin with, and do not mclude, the military campaigns 

 of 1863-64. The far western regions of the present Navaho Reserva- 

 tion were settled largely if not entirely by people who escaped the 

 Carson roundup and its aftermath (see "Background," pp. 30-53). 

 Navaho-White relations at Shonto and neighboring communities were 

 thus not affected at the outset by any act of overt subjugation as they 

 were in the Fort Defiance area (see, e.g., Van Valkenburgh and 

 McPhee, 1938 ; Underbill, 1956, pp. 144-163) . It was to be nearly 70 

 years before Shonto residents were subjected to anything like the 

 same sort of compulsions as their eastern neighbors. In the meantime, 

 intercultural relations were intermittently hostile, indifferent, or ami- 

 cable, but nearly always voluntary on the part of the Navahos. 



For western Navahos, face-to-face contact with Anglo-Americans 

 began with the pioneer Mormon colonies west of the Colorado River, 

 and later at Moencopi (see "The American Period," pp. 40-42) . Rela- 

 tions here were in the same sort of trading-raiding pattern which had 

 ultimately provoked the Carson campaign in the eastern area, and 

 which was essentially nothing more than a continuation of traditional 

 relationships with the Hopi and other well-to-do enemy peoples (see 

 "Early Trading Posts," pp. 150-154 ; also Hill, 1948, p. 374) . Sporadic 

 raids and "incidents" occurred as late at 1894, resulting in the inter- 

 vention of Federal authorities at Moencopi (Van Valkenburgh, 1941, 

 p. 164) , but no effective punitive action was taken. At no time in the 

 western Navaho country was there any kind of military establishment 

 comparable to those maintained at Fort Defiance, Fort Wingate, and 

 various outposts in the east. Western Navahos, consequently, showed 

 little awareness of the Treaty of 1868 and did not behave like a 

 conquered people. 



In theory the subjugation of the western Navaho began in 1906 

 when they were "reservationized." A good deal of compulsion was 

 exerted in the immediate neighborhood of Tuba City to get the 

 children into school and also, probably, to control the sale of liquor. 

 Shonto and other more remote communities felt few if any effects 

 of the presence of the Tuba City agency for another generation; 

 it was out of the effective reach of administrative agencies until 

 the 1930's. 



The real subordination of western Navahos began in the trading 

 posts, and continued steadily throughout the early decades of the 

 20th century as the people became more and more dependent on the 

 Wliite man's economy and its products (see Underbill, 1956, pp. 

 177-195) . A condition of economic dependence was established which 

 in the long run proved a greater sanction for cultural subordination 

 than even military subjugation. Nevertheless, and in spite of the 

 efforts of the Bureau of Indian Affairs to enforce culture change and 



