Johnston] NAVAHO POPULATION 47 



continued. The next plan for the education of the Navaho was am- 

 bitious in the extreme. With the transfer of the bulk of the tribe 

 to Fort Sumner in 1864, General Carleton envisioned a program of 

 training and education which would transform these people from 

 "warlike nomads" into "peaceful agriculturalists." His plans were 

 soon abandoned under the harsh realities of crop failures, inadequate 

 facilities, and general mismanagement. Woerner mentions the re- 

 quest of the Rev. P. Equillon for permission to select 15 Navaho boys 

 and girls at Fort Sumner for education at a Catholic school in Santa 

 Fe. If this request was granted, it constituted the only actual edu- 

 cational undertaking of the entire Fort Sumner period. 



After the return of the Navaho to their former homeland in 1868, the 

 task of educating and converting them fell to the Presbyterians. The 

 first Navaho school was duly established under the direction of 

 Rev. James M. Roberts, with the assistance of Miss Charity A. 

 Gaston, in 1869. The beginning of this school was inauspicious, to 

 say the least. No facilities were provided for the construction of a 

 school building, so that the opening of the school was delayed over 

 a year until a room could be provided for the purpose. Actual classes 

 began on December 6, 1869, but the school enjoyed no real support 

 from either the Navaho or the authorities.^^ Several Navaho "chiefs" 

 did visit the premises and expressed general approval of the idea, but 

 no responsible parents seemed willing to entrust their own children 

 to this experiment. The school finally closed some 4 months later, 

 having had an irregular attendance averaging only 14 pupils.^^ 



This initial failure was followed by over 30 years of almost complete 

 neglect and inactivity in the field of Navaho education. The original 

 Navaho school was periodically reopened, but with no greater suc- 

 cess. The few reluctant children who could be brought into the school 

 were very irregular in their attendance. The strangeness of language 

 and custom which greeted them in the classrooms was undoubtedly 

 overwhelming. The insignificant impact of these early educational 

 efforts is apparent in the attendance records for the period. Average 

 daily attendance remained below 20 pupils until 1882, when the first 

 Navaho boarding school was constructed. With accommodations for 

 100 pupils, this second school gave promise of greater achievement in 

 the education of Navahos. However, its own average daily attendance 



81 The provisions of the treaty between the United States of America and the Navaho 

 tribe specified that the United States would provide a schoolhouse and a competent 

 teacher "for every 30 children between the ages of [6 and 16 years] who can be induced 

 or compelled to attend school." See Underbill, 1953, pp. 176-181. 



'2 Woerner, MS., p. 23. The annual report for the year 1870 (Doc. No. 124) lists the 

 enrollment at this school as 20 males and 10 females, with 1 teacher. During the 

 Grant administration the several Indian tribes and frontier areas were allocated among 

 the major religious denominations, so that each denomination could pursue Its missionary 

 activities in a designated area without interference. In this allocation, the Navaho came 

 under the ministrations of the Presbyterians. 



