242 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 188 



to seek and to depend on American-provided jobs, education, 

 and medical facilities. Postwar Indian Bureau programs have 

 shifted away from community service and development, toward long- 

 range economic planning (cf. Krug, 1948), intensified education of 

 the younger generation at off-reservation schools (Officer, 1956, pp. 

 35-74), and the relocation of small numbers of exceptionally skilled 

 or educated Navahos in off-reservation communities (Kelly, 1953, pp. 

 98-99) . The future effects of these programs throughout the Navaho 

 Reservation are likely to prove incalculable; for the moment, how- 

 ever, they largely bypass the current adult Navaho population. 



In sum, the last 15 years of Navaho- White contact have seen the 

 return of initiative to the Navahos, and selected voluntary acceptance 

 of certain Wliite traits and influence. The overall pattern is one of 

 "adaptation" (Redfield, Linton, and Herskovits, 1936, p. 152) or, as 

 it was termed by the most recent Social Science Research Council 

 report, "progressive adjustment" through the process of cultural fu- 

 sion (Summer Seminar on Acculturation, 1954, pp. 987-988). 



One fundamental trend is discernible throughout the history of 

 western Navaho-White contact. As chart H indicates, a clear and 

 profound distinction, both qualitative and quantitative, can be made 

 between commercial and/or economic contacts (chart H: rows 1, 2, 

 4, 9) and all other contacts (chart H: rows 3, 5-8, 10-12) between the 

 two groups. To begin with, the former are the only contacts which 

 have ever been instituted originally through Navaho initiative (column 

 E) . All other contacts and contact institutions have been founded by 

 Whites for their own purposes. Furthermore, commercial-economic 

 contacts have nearly always been friendly from the start (column J), 

 have never involved Wliite coercion (column H), and have affected 

 greater numbers of Navahos (column C) more regularly (column D) 

 than have any others. 



Non-commercial contacts have varied considerably in character ac- 

 cording to their purpose, but they have all been instituted originally 

 by Whites (column E). Reaction to them has run the gamut from 

 hostile to friendly (column J) ; in most cases it was initially in- 

 different at best. Most of these contacts have affected special seg- 

 ments of the community (column C) rather than the whole, and 

 frequency of contact has been extremely variable (column D). 



In spite of their basic orientation toward White interests, non- 

 economic contact institutions have exerted comparatively little com- 

 pulsion except in the single case of stock reduction. Al- 

 though founded by Whites (column E), the subsequent mitative for 

 establishing specific contacts has been left to the Navaho in many 

 cases (column F) . In other words, always excepting stock reduction, 

 the overall pattern of such contacts has been permissive and voluntary, 



