18 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 197 



Third, a total of 54,997 Navahos were enumerated in the 1950 census 

 as residing within the confines of the Navajo Reservation itself. The 

 corresponding population was 60,016 in 1960, implying an average 

 annual rate of increase of only 0.87 percent during this period. These 

 dgures might correspond to the total population of "cultural" 

 Navahos.^° 



The association of the above population totals with the three theo- 

 retical population categories is, of course, somewhat arbitrary. How- 

 ever, this association does permit a rough approximation of the relative 

 growth of these three populations since 1950. In 1950, the core popu- 

 lation of cultural Navahos (those residing within the boundaries of 

 the reservation) amounted to 80 percent of the de jure total. Taking 

 the service area population as a minimum estimate of the administra- 

 tive population at this time, the latter amoimted to a total of 90 per- 

 cent of the de jure total. Although the 1960 data do not yield a satis- 

 factory estimate of the administrative population as distinct from 

 the total de jure estimate, they do indicate that the proportion of 

 de jure Navahos residing outside the reservation-proper has risen 

 from about 20 percent in 1950 to 33 percent in 1960.^^ 



TRIBAL ECOLOGY AND CULTURE 



A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE NAVAHO 



The origins of the Navaho, like those of most preliterate peoples, 

 can only be described in very general terms. They, like the Apache, 

 are an Athapascan people, which implies that their ancestors must 

 have migrated into their present locale from the forest regions of 

 Alaska and western Canada. The scattered pockets of Athapascan- 

 speaking peoples remaining along the Pacific coast are evidence of 

 this migration, while other evidence (mainly ruins of Navaho-type 

 hogans along the eastern slopes of the Rockies) suggests parallel 

 southward movements of Athapascan peoples farther to the east 

 (Huscher and Huscher, 1942). ^^ 



The period during which these migrations to the southwest took 

 place has not been precisely determined. Archeological findings sug- 

 gest the appearance of Athapascans among the Colorado Rockies as 

 early as A.D. 1100, but the earliest date for a southwestern site which 

 is conclusively Navaho in construction has been established at A.D. 

 1550 (Wormington, 1956, pp. 105 f.). In his study of Navaho and 

 Apache origins, Hodge (1895, pp. 225, 238 f.) attempted to compare 



s" See footnote 12, p. 8 for the source of the 1950 and 1960 estimates. 



** An excellent summary of the limitations of the procedures and results of the earlier 

 demographic research conducted by both the Bureau of the Census and the agency officials 

 of the Bureau of Indian Affairs is given in Bureau of Indian Affairs, 1935, pp. 62 ff. 



'^ In this connection. Underbill, 1956, pp. 11 f., mentions a reverence for the buffalo In 

 a number of Navaho myths and rites as indicative of onetime residence In the Plains 

 area on the part of Navaho ancestors. 



