34 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 197 



exile at Fort Sumner. Finally, the indefinite number of Navahos who 

 were never captured must have possessed additional flocks and herds. 

 In any case, the annual report of 1872 indicated a rapid increase in 

 their livestock holdings, giving estimates of 130,000 sheep and 10,000 

 horses.^^ This same report gave the size of the Navajo Reservation 

 as 3,328,000 acres, which was less than 25 percent of the territory 

 claimed by the Navaho 20 years previously. This point is economi- 

 cally significant in that it indicates the severely reduced land base on 

 which the Navaho were expected to pursue a livelihood after their 

 return from Fort Sumner. The inadequacy of this reservation was 

 apparent even in the 1870's when many Navahos took up residence 

 outside the boundaries of the reservation. 



Despite these official limitations on their land base, the Navaho con- 

 tinued to expand their livestock holdings during the following decades. 



By 1880, these holdings were estimated at 1,000,000 sheep and goats 

 plus 40,000 horses and about 1,000 mules and cattle.®" 



The first official recognition of the fact that this rapid growth posed 

 a threat to the tribe's economic stability came in 1883. Dennis M. 

 Eiordan, perhaps the outstanding Indian agent to have served the 

 Navaho, included the following appraisal in his annual report for 

 that year : ®^ 



They have too many sheep. The number could be reduced fully one-half (I be- 

 lieve, two-thirds) with benefit to the tribe. . . . 



They have an enormous number of useless ponies .... As the Navahos meas- 

 ure a man's M'ealth by the number (regardless of quality) of horses he has, a 

 radical change in their modes of thought must be brought about before much 

 improvement can be made in this regard. 



This warning of coming troubles, like so many later warnings, 

 evoked no really appropriate response from the officials in Washing- 

 ton. Rather than addressing themselves to the fundamental prob- 

 lem of controlling the expansion of livestock holdings, the authorities 

 sought to further extend the reservation boundaries. By 1890, the 

 reservation included an area of 8,205,440 acres, but much of this ad- 

 ditional land was either worthless or already being utilized by the 

 Navaho before it was officially added to their reservation. Meanwhile, 

 although the Navaho holdings of sheep and goats did not materially 

 increase over the 1880 figure, they had increased their herds of horses 



^» Bureau of Indian Affairs, 1872, p. 52. If this estimate of Navaho livestock holdings 

 is even roughly correct, it implies an increase of 300 to 400 percent in less than 3 years. 



«» Bureau of Indian Affairs, 1880, p. 268. Much credence cannot be given these annual 

 estimates of stoclcholdings. Their great variation from year to year may reflect either 

 the vagaries of winter and forage conditions or the vagaries of the reporting agents. A 

 summary of the development of livestock agriculture among the Navaho is included in 

 Fryer, 1940. 



«i Rlordan, 1883, p. 122. An account of the conditions faced by Riordan and other 

 Navaho agents at this time is given in Underbill, 1956, pp. 171 ff. 



