Johnston] NAVAHO POPULATION 19 



the Navaho references to their origins in their own creation myth to 

 available historical references. By this procedure, he placed the 

 time of the "creation" of the Navaho tribe at about A.D. 1485, and 

 established the date of the first significant accession to their popula- 

 tion at about A.D, 1560. He concluded that the ancestors of the 

 Navaho did not arrive in the Southwest until the latter part of the 15th 

 century. Although some authorities (notably Bourke; Swanton and 

 Dixon) have expressed disagreement with Hodge on this point, the 

 view that the Navaho and Apache are relatively recent arrivals in the 

 Southwest has gained general acceptance at the present time,^^ 



The time of the initial organization of the Navaho into a distinct 

 tribe is also obscure. It is generally agreed that they were so or- 

 ganized before the 18th century, embodying elements from a number 

 of Pueblo groups and other neighboring tribes (Hodge, 1895, p. 238). 

 Furthermore, the fact that the Navaho occupied an extensive area 

 in the Southwest as early as the latter part of the I7th century is at- 

 tested to by an early reference to the "extensive province of the 

 Navahos, [extending] 100 leagues from North to South . , . and 300 

 leagues from East to West"^* (see map 1). However, there are few 

 clues to their tribal organization at this time. The fact that the 

 Navaho successfully retained their cultural independence throughout 

 the three centuries of Spanish hegemony in the Southwest is probably 

 attributable more to their geographic isolation than to the strength 

 of their tribal organization. Tlie Navaho did sustain intermittent 

 raiding expeditions against their neighbors throughout this period, 

 but such forays do not imply more than a local political organization 

 at most (Hall, 1944, p. 100 ; Pike, 1811, p. 337) . Tlie ethnic diversity 

 of the peoples making up the Navaho tribe is further evidence that 

 they must have been loosely organized at this time. Spencer points 

 out that their clan system, on which much of their social organization 

 is based, did not develop until after the Navaho reached the South- 

 west, This suggests that they could not have developed any general 

 social or political organization until fairly recently in their history 

 (Spencer, 1947, p, 128 ; cf , Hill, 1940 b, p, 19) . 



The relationship of the Navaho to the Apache has been the subject 

 of considerable controversy. Bandelier (1890-92, p. 175) considered 

 the several Apache bands to be offshoots of a central body of Navahos, 

 apparently reasoning that the greater numbers and contiguous terri- 

 tory occupied by the latter implied an earlier organization. In his 

 dissertation on the early history of the Navaho, Worcester (MS., p. 27) 

 expresses a contrary view, arguing that the Navaho are offshoots of 



23 Bourke, 1895; Swanton and Dixon, 1914. "Relatively recent arrivals in the South- 

 west" can be talven to mean sometime within the past 10 centuries. See Underhill, 1956, 

 pp. 15 ff. ; Kluckhohn and Lelghton, 1951, pp. 3 f. 



»* In a letter by Gov. Francisco Cuervo y Valdes of Santa Fe, N. Mex., dated August 18, 

 1706. As quoted In Reed, 1941, pp. 485 ff. 



