Johnston] NAVAHO POPULATION 89 



After 1928, the ligures submitted by the several Navaho agencies 

 were derived from extensive surveys and enumerations that were 

 carried out in connection with the preparation of up-to-date tribal 

 rolls for each agency. The first of these surveys was carried out in 

 the years 1928 to 1929. At this time, each Navaho was issued a disk on 

 which was stamped his census number. The original plan called for 

 the execution of supplementary surveys at 3-year intervals, whereby 

 births, deaths, and changes in family formation and residence oc- 

 curring in the interim could be duly recorded on the existmg rolls.'*' 

 A number of supplementary rolls were prepared in the 1930's but no 

 complete recanvassing of the entire reservation area has been carried 

 out since the initial survey of 1928-29. Thus the rolls prepared on 

 the basis of the 1928-29 survey have not undergone fundamental re- 

 vision since that time, although the set of rolls compiled in 1939 did 

 take into account reported births and deaths up to that time. After 

 1939, reported births and deaths w-ere merely noted on the 1939 rolls. 



The figures reported during the decade of the 1930's (table 17) 

 reflect important improvements in the quality of the population data 

 available to agency officials. As noted previously, the 1930 figure 

 was not greatly in excess of the census figure. The same is true of the 

 figures submitted at the close of the 1930 decade, when the total of 

 48,796 as of January 1, 1940, coincides almost exactly with the total 

 of 48,722 as obtained from prelimmary tabulations of the 1940 

 census. Internal comparisons of the average annual rates of increase 

 implied in the figures reported for 1930, 1934-35, and 1939-40 sug- 

 gest that the figures given in 1934-35 may have been somewhat low. 

 The average annual rate of increase between 1930 and 1934-35 (as 

 implied in the figures show^n in table 17) is 1.3 percent, while that 

 implied in the figures for 1934-35 and 1939-40 is over 2.4 percent. 

 These comparisons suggest that the actual Navaho population m 

 1934^35 was in the neighborhood of 44,000. 



Turning next to a consideration of the reported numbers of school- 

 age children during this period, it should be repeated that the pre- 

 cise ages were not specified until 1927, when the category was defined 

 to include all persons aged 6 through 18 years. However, this lack 

 of precision in definition is scarcely objectionable in a situation where- 



••3 From discussion with J. Nixon Hadley, September 10, 1957. The procedure for these 

 surveys is outlined in National Archives, Record Group 75, File No. 20753-1929-034, dated 

 November 27, 1929, as follows : 



The method was the same in all jurisdictions. The enumeration schedule shows 

 ;name, age, sex, degree of blood, marital condition, relationship to head of family, 

 and enumeration or identification number. . . . The identification numbers . . . 

 Indicated both the jurisdiction and the district in which the Indian was enumerated. 

 . . . [He received a disk with his number on it.] 



The enumeration schedules were forwarded to the agency office where the data 

 were transcribed to two sets of cards — the individual card and the family card. 

 [The former were] filed alphabetically . . . [and the latter were] filed by the 

 [identification] number of the head [of the family]. 



