Johnston] NAVAHO POPULATION 33 



the Navaho economy is characterized by transhumance wherein each 

 grazing community is identified with a specific locality. 



Prior to Fort Sumner, the Navaho had long enjoyed a reputation 

 for relative wealth and prosperity. As mentioned previously, most 

 of the early references to the Navaho allude to their large flocks and 

 herds and their general industry. 



The following quotation from the report of the Hon. D. Merriwether 

 in 1854 is typical of these early appraisals : ^^ 



. . . the Navajoes . . . raise an abundance of corn and wheat . . . [and] have 

 numerous herds of horses and sheep, and some horned cattle and mules, and . . . 

 live in a degree of comfort and plenty unknown to the other wild Indians of 

 this section of the Union. [Merriwether, 1855, p. 172.] 



By 1861, however, the Navaho had begun to suffer seriously from 

 the effects of their intermittent warfare with the Americans, whose 

 punitive expeditions permitted the traditional enemies of the Navaho 

 to settle old scores. The report of that year referred to the severe 

 loss of property by the Navaho, and especially of their loss of many 

 women and children made captive in the punitive expeditions of the 

 previous year (Graves, 1862). In 1866, the report of J. K. Graves, 

 Special Agent Relative to Indian Affairs in New Mexico, detailed the 

 practice whereby the volunteers who participated in these expeditions 

 into Navaho territory were allowed to sell their captives in Mexico or 

 hold them in "practical slavery." Graves estimated that the cumula- 

 tive effect of these hostilities was to reduce the total Indian population 

 of the territory from about 38,000 in 1846 to about 20,000 in 1866. 

 He further estimated that the Navaho, included in the above figures, 

 had themselves declined from about 13,500 to about 7,600 in the same 

 period (Graves, 1867). Although it is now clear that this report 

 greatly exaggerated the effectiveness of the warfare conducted against 

 the Navaho and other Indians in the territory, it is nevertheless evident 

 that the Navaho had been considerably weakened before Carson 

 brought them to final defeat in 1863. 



It can be safely presumed that the Navaho commenced the post- 

 Sumner period with very little of their former wealth. Their fields 

 had been ravaged both by the campaigns of Carson and the effects of 

 4 years of neglect. The information relative to their livestock hold- 

 ings at this time is not clear. They definitely received an issue of 

 15,000 sheep and 2,000 goats in 1869. In addition, they may have 

 received as many as 15,000 sheep in subsequent issues shortly there- 

 after.^^ They also retained at least 2,000 sheep from their period of 



" See, for example, Hughes, 1847, pp. 66 and 76. The high valuation placed upon 

 general Industriousness and the accumulation of wealth for communal benefit in tradi- 

 tional Navaho culture is substantiated in Hobson, 1954, Summary, pp. 2S f. 



58 Hodge (1910, p. 42) estimated the total Government issue at 30,000 sheep and 2,000 

 goats, but specific mention is made of only half this number. [See footnote 46, p. 26.] 



