46 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 197 



Finally, this report furnished an interesting indicator of the eco- 

 nomic position of reservation Navahos relative to non-Indian families 

 residing in the area of the reservation. The prevailing median cash 

 income of these non-Indian families in 1952 was about $3,200. Ac- 

 cording to the report, in order for the Navaho families on the reserva- 

 tion to attain that income level by their present means of livelihood, 

 their number would have to be reduced to 29 percent of their estimated 

 number in 1952. In other words, it was estimated that the reservation 

 area could support only 29 percent of the Navaho families on the 

 reservation at the level prevailing among non-Indian families in the 

 area at this time.^^ 



Even if the accuracy of these figures is questioned, their gi'oss im- 

 plications are obvious. Although 54 percent of the average family 

 income of reservation Navahos was derived from nonagricultural 

 sources, their total income, on the average, remained well below that 

 prevailing among non-Indians in the area. This discrepancy is bound 

 to continue until far greater proportions of Navahos can acquire the 

 education and skills necessary to receive better paying or more perma- 

 nent ofl'-reservation employment. 



THE GROWTH OF FORMAL EDUCATION AMONG THE NAVAHO so 



Prior to the American conquest of the Southwest, the major impact 

 of European culture upon the Navaho was economic rather than social. 

 The Navaho acquired sheep and horses during the Spanish hegemony 

 in the Southwest, but the meager efforts of a few missionaries to con- 

 vert the Navaho to the ways of Christianity had little perceptible 

 effect. The early efforts of Padre Geronimo Zarate-Salmeron and 

 Frey Alonzo de Benavides, begun early in the 17th century, were not 

 continued. Over a century later, in 1749, small missions were estab- 

 lished at Cebolleta and Encinal, only to be abandoned a year later. 

 In the full century of Spanish rule that followed this failure, no 

 further effort to implant Western European values among the Navaho 

 appears to have been undertaken. 



Shortly after the transfer of control over the region to the Amer- 

 icans, Capt. Henry L. Dodge was appointed first Indian Agent to 

 handle Navaho affairs. In 1853, Dodge established a training school 

 to teach a few Navahos the arts of iron and silver smithing, employing 

 a Mexican instructor for this purpose. However, with the rapid 

 deterioration in the relations between the United States and the 

 Navaho during the following years, this school was eventually dis- 



'" U.S. Congress, 1953, p. 110. The data and calculations on which these percentages are 

 based were not included in the final report. However, the more recent survey mentioned 

 in "Health Services for American Indians" estimated that the reservation could support 

 5,000 of the 14,000 families on the reservation at the present time (U.S. Public Health 

 Service, 1957 c, p. 32). 



8»The major source of the historical phases of this general subject is Woerner (MS.). 



