76 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 197 



The estimates of the number of Navahos who were never brought 

 to the fort remain highly contradictory. As mentioned previously, 

 General Carleton's final estimate placed their number as under 1,000, 

 while Colonel Carson's implicit estimate was closer to 6,000. In 

 addition to this glaring discrepancy, there remains the question of 

 the number of Navahos who had been captured and enslaved prior to 

 the Sumner period. Of the two specific references to this latter group, 

 the first estimate, mentioned above, gave their number as 5,000 or 

 6,000, while the second implies a figure of under 1,000.^^ 



It is evident from the above data that the sources available for 

 this second period do not provide a reliable estimate of the Navaho 

 population as a whole, although they do furnish relatively precise 

 information on the number of Navahos actually brought to Fort 

 Sumner. The available estimates of the number of Navahos who 

 never arrived at the fort would appear to range from a mmimum of 

 2,000 to a maximum of perhaps 6,000 or 8,000, but the exact figure 

 must again remain a matter of conjecture. 



With respect to information on the characteristics of the Navaho 

 population at the fort, the enumerations of the military authorities 

 are seriously defective. In the first place, the reported totals fail 

 to specify the allowance made for persons "temporarily absent" from 

 the fort. Secondly, it is evident that no adequate record of births 

 and deaths occurring at the fort was maintained. Finally, when 

 these reports included references to age and sex categories, the classi- 

 fications as reported are either overlapping or nonexhaustive.^^ 



In summary, it can be concluded that even under conditions of 

 captivity, the Navaho pof)ulation was not satisfactorily enumerated 

 by the authorities in charge. 



PERIOD 3. 1869-85 



The third period in the development of the population records begins 

 with the return of the Navaho to their former lands during the latter 

 half of 1868.=^° During the first 2 or 3 years of this period, the Navahos 



28 The higher estimate is that of Dr. Louis Kennon (Young, 1957, p. 217). The lower 

 figure is from the annual report of the Navaho agent for the year 1S72 (Keams, 1872). It 

 is, of course, possible that Dr. Kennon's estimate of the "slave" population of this area 

 included considerable numbers of non-Navaho Indians and Mexicans living under a system 

 of peonage. In this 1872 report, the Navaho population was said to have increased over 

 the previous year by 880. This increase was mainly attributed to the "return of captives 

 by the Mexicans." However, no specific figures were given as to the number of such 

 captives returning that year or during the years immediately preceding or following. 



""For example, Lieutenant MacDonald's enumeration (Dodd, 1868), gave the number of 

 men and women over 18 and the number of children under 18. Later reports sometimes 

 reported the number of men over 18, the number of women over 16, and the number of 

 children under 16. 



™The last formal action taken at Fort Sumner was the signing of a treaty of peace 

 between the Government of the United States and 18 Navahos who had been acknowledged 

 as chieftains of their people. The treaty was signed on June 1, 1868, whereupon the 

 Navahos proceeded to their former homelands. Many Nnvahos had already departed from 

 Fort Sumner by that time. See Underbill, 1953, pp. 176 ff. 



