66 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 197 



organization, creating a burden of dependency which State and local 

 authorities would be forced to assume. 



The Navaho tribe will eventually be subject to consideration under 

 the provisions of the termination program although, in this case, with- 

 drawal of Federal supervision remains in the indefinite future. Never- 

 theless, the Navaho tribal organization is already assuming a greater 

 share of responsibility for the direction of tribal affairs. This organi- 

 zation must play a dual role in the future. On the one hand, it must 

 sustain a viable economy within the reservation itself while, at the 

 same time, it must encourage the emigration of an increasing propor- 

 tion of the reservation population. It is generally agreed that the 

 reservation cannot possibly support more than a minority of the 

 present Navaho population. For the remainder, greater participation 

 in the life of the outside society must be envisioned. The success- 

 ful pursuit of these two objectives constitutes the major challenge fac- 

 ing the Navaho tribal organization in the immediate future. 



SOUECES OF DATA ON THE TOTAL NAVAHO 

 POPULATION 



In this chapter, the two major sources of information on the total 

 population of the Navaho — the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the 

 Bureau of the Census — are given detailed consideration. A third 

 source, the Soil Conservation Service, is considered briefly. The 

 purpose of this review is to describe the development of procedures of 

 data collection employed by each of these agencies in obtaining in- 

 formation on the Navaho population. In some instances, the limita- 

 tions of these procedures are readily apparent from the description 

 given of their salient features. In most cases, however, it is necessary 

 to provide comparative summaries of the pertinent data in order to 

 illustrate particular aspects or defects of the underlying procedures 

 of data collection. The chapter closes with a summary of Navaho 

 population growth as evident from the earliest estimates to those of 

 the present time. 



THE BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS 



The Bureau of Indian Affairs was organized in 1824 as a part of 

 the War Department. Its major functions at that time were to carry 

 out treaty negotiations and regulate trade with the growing number 

 of Indian tribes that were coming into contact with American settlers. 

 However, with the disorganization of traditional modes of Indian life 

 that accompanied the progressive encroachment of these settlers upon 

 Indian lands, the Bureau was gradually transformed into a new form 

 of custodial organization. In this capacity, the Bureau was charged 

 with the task of administering Indian affairs in aeneral. The official 



