50 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[Bull. 197 



earlier, the Selective Service System classified 88 percent of the Nav- 

 aho males aged 18 to 35 as illiterate (Kluckhohn and Leighton, 1951, 

 p. 91). These findmgs, coupled with the growing recognition of the 

 importance of education for desirable off-reservation employment, 

 brought renewed interest in education among the Navaho : meanwhile, 

 the enrollment situation appears to have deteriorated during the war. 

 In 1945, only about 6,200 of the 19,200 Navahos estimated in the age 

 group 6 to 18 were enrolled in school, implying a decline in enrollment 

 from 46 to 32 percent. Although much of this decline is spurious, due 

 to duplicate counts of enrolled children and the evident underestima- 

 tion of the school-age population in 1940, it is nevertheless probable 

 that population increase was advancing faster than school enrollment 

 at this time.^^ 



The effects of this inadequate school enrollment can be seen in the 

 statistics on the literacy of the Navaho population. The data pre- 

 sented in table 8 were computed from special tabulations from the 1950 

 census. They show the percentage of Navahos aged 6 years and older 

 who could read English, and also the percentage who could speak 

 English in 1950. 



It is interesting to note that the Navahos residing in New Mexico 

 displayed a considerably higher proportion of literacy than those in 

 Arizona and Utah, evidently reflecting a somewhat greater accessibil- 

 ity of schools in this area and probably a lower degree of general 

 isolation on the part of Navahos residing in New Mexico. 



It is also apparent from these figures that the war itself motivated 

 and enabled many Navahos to acquire further formal education. This 

 inference seems warranted by the evident decline in the proportion 

 of illiterates among the 18^4 age group, which would include the 



Table 8.- 



-Percentages of Navaho ivho read and who speak English, by age and 

 State of residence — 1950 ^ 



1 U.S. Public Health Service, 1957 c, table 7. The percentages shown for the total Navaho were cal- 

 culated from the figures given for the separate States. 



*' The figures given for Arizona alone show, in 1945, a population of 10,529 Navahos 

 aged 6 to 18 inclusive, of whom 3,593 were enrolled in school, indicating an enrollment 

 of 34.1 percent (Officer, 1956, p. 31). 



