Johnston] NAVAHO POPULATION 27 



to seek pasturage beyond the confines of the reservation and were in 

 fact in permanent residence outside the reservation boundaries (Un- 

 derhill, 1953, p. 235) . With overgrazing had come soil erosion. This 

 in turn further restricted the amount of grazing land available. The 

 vicious cycle which was to become familiar in the "dust bowl" regions 

 elsewhere in the United States was already in operation in Navaho 

 country by the beginning of the 20th century. The only existing au- 

 thority that might have applied preventive measures at this early 

 stage was the Bureau (then Office) of Indian Affairs, but once more 

 the periodic reports that were submitted through channels brought 

 no response.*^ The only tangible result of these continuous reports 

 of land shortage was the official recognition by Washington of the 

 de facto occupation of off-reservation lands by Navahos. The bound- 

 aries of the reservation were extended in a series of legislative enact- 

 ments (map 3, p. 24) .*^ 



Unfortunately, these increases in the size of the reservation had 

 little effect on the fundamental imbalance between Navaho livestock 

 holdings and their land resources. The very facility with which the 

 Government was able to extend the reservation boundaries testifies 

 to the poverty of the land in question. Furthermore, as was noted 

 earlier, the Navaho were already in de facto occupation of much of 

 this land. Finally, it should be noted that with the rapid rise in the 

 Navaho population, their per capita land holdings remained, in 1930, 

 at about the same point where they had been in 1870, while the average 

 quality of this land had declined considerably (van Valkenburgh and 

 McPhee, 1938, pp.49 f.). 



The cumulative effects of miregulated livestock expansion and Gov- 

 ernmental neglect finally were felt in Washington when, during the 

 1920's, a number of investigations into the Bureau of Indian Affairs 

 and conditions prevailing among the several Indian reservations 

 were carried out."*^ These investigations eventually gave rise to the 

 development of a new policy toward the American Indian, initiated 

 by reorganization of the Bureau in 1933 and the enactment of 



*' No responsible governing body of Navahos was in existence at this time. The 

 Navajo Tribal Council was not organized until 1923, and remained largely a nominal 

 body until after World War II. See Young, 1954, pp. 77 ff. 



*' See footnote 41, p. 24. These extensions to the Navajo Reservation are especially 

 noteworthy in view of the fact that they were contrary to the prevailing policy of open- 

 ing increasing segments of Indian lands to outside settlement. In the period 1870 to 

 1900, the Navajo Reservation was increased to about three times its original size. During 

 this same period, the amount of land included in all Indian reservations in the United 

 States was reduced from 138 million to 52 million acres. Similarly, the Navajo Reser- 

 vation was increased in size by a further 50 percent from 1900 to 1933, while the size 

 of all Indian reservations in the country underwent further reduction to 29 million acres. 

 This loss of Indian lands held by the Indian tribes during this period is summarized in 

 Adams, 1946, p. 59. 



*8 These several investigations culminated in the voluminous report, Meriam et al., 

 1928. The studies reported therein were conducted by the Institute for Government 

 Research. At about the same time, the U.S. Senate began a long series of hearings on 

 this general problem. 



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