Johnston] NAVAHO POPULATION 71 



I know of uo family that cau raise one Iiundred and lifty liollars but what 

 purchases a Navajo slave, and many families own four or tive .... I have been 

 conversant with the institution of slavery in Georgia, but the system is worse 

 here, there being no obligation to care for the slave when he becomes old or 

 worthless. 



It is apparent that the institution of slavery as it developed in the 

 Southwest permitted a considerable degree of assimilation between 

 the captives and their owners. Chief Justice Kirby Benedict, also 

 writing in 1865, referred to the common practice in this area of regard- 

 ing the offspring of captive Navaho women as citizens, ". . . who then 

 marry and blend with the general population." ^^ With respect to the 

 actual number of Navahos who may have been captured and sold into 

 slavery during this period, it is impossible to fix upon a precise figure. 

 The number given by Kennon may well have been colored by the emo- 

 tions that were aroused by all references to slavery at the time, and 

 if the number of slaves was as high as the figure he reported, we could 

 expect far more references to this institution than are extant. 



The imprecision of the population estimates quoted above is readily 

 apparent without detailed analysis. Starting with a figure of 5,000 

 in 1849, these estimates rise to a high of 12,000 to 15,000 in 1859, and 

 then, 2 years later, decline sharply to 9,000. Subsequent population 

 figures for the Navaho tend to suggest that the 1849 figure was far 

 too low, but they do not clearly indicate which of the higher figures 

 is the more correct. 



In considering the procedures whereby these population figures were 

 reached, it is necessary to review briefly the general situation prevailing 

 in this area at this time. The entire area from the Rio Grande River 

 to the Colorado had just been ceded by the Government of Mexico, 

 and was in a process of transition from military to civil administration. 

 Neither the military nor the civil authorities had yet acquired any sys- 

 tematic knowledge of the territory as a whole, or of its inhabitants. 

 Most of the Indians in this territory, except the Pueblo, had neither 

 been pacified nor defeated by the American military forces. The 

 entire period was marked by growing hostility between the several 

 Indian tribes and the American settlers, and the Navaho figured 

 prominently in these hostilities. Military reconnaissance which pene- 

 trated into Navaho country did not cover the vast area systematically, 



" Young, 1957, p. 217. Justice Benedict's testimony is included in U.S. Congress, 1867, 

 Appendix. 



Navaho slaves appear to have developed a distinctive blanket design (Mera, 1938). 

 Mera mentions that numerous Apache slaves were captured by Spanish expeditions as late 

 as 18&0. Some of these captives were undoubtedly Navahos. 



