Johnston] NAVAHO POPULATION 91 



of tlie number of school-age Navahos or a serious overestimate of the 

 size of the total population, or both (see pp. 139-149). 



In general, the estimated proportions of school-age Navahos remain 

 within a fairly plausible range during the early 1920's. These propor- 

 tions vary from a high of 36.7 percent in 1919 to a low of 31.9 percent 

 in 1921. However, between 1923 and 1924, they drop from 33.8 percent 

 to 24.6 percent. This decline is due largely to a further drastic down- 

 ward revision in the number of school-age Navahos estimated for the 

 Southern Agency, from 5,395 in 1923 to 3,000 in 1924. The former 

 figure amounts to 47.8 percent of the total population reported for the 

 agency, while the latter comes to only 26.6 percent of the total. It is 

 apparent that either or both fi.gures are seriously in error. A similar 

 downward revision of the estimated numbers of school-age children 

 is apparent in the reports of the Northern Navajo Agency, where the 

 proportion of school-age Navahos reaches a low of only 11.3 percent 

 in 1930." 



The cumulative effect of these revisions was to produce estimated 

 proportions of school-age Navahos that were well below plausibility, 

 ranging from a low of 20.2 percent in 1927 to a high of 27.8 percent 

 in 1930. 



By 1935, however, the estimates of persons of school age had been 

 substantially improved, so that the proportion of school-age Navahos 

 in all agencies comes to 33.3 percent, despite an obvious serious defi- 

 ciency in the figures reported by the Hopi Agency in regard to school- 

 age Navahos.*^ 



In 1940, despite the apparent accuracy in the total population fig- 

 ures, the reported numbers of school-age children were again seriously 

 defective. The proportions of school age to total population for that 

 year are 28.0 percent in Arizona, and 22.8 percent in New Mexico, for 

 an overall proportion of 25.6 percent. A possible explanation for the 

 low percentage reported for Arizona lies in the fact that an estimated 

 3,000 persons not on agency rolls were added to the reported total for 

 that State. There is no indication that a corresponding addition was 

 made to the reported number of Navahos of school age in Arizona. 

 However, the even greater deficiency apparent in the figures for New 

 Mexico cannot be explained (see pp. 139-149). 



The figures shown for 1945, finally, represent the further acljust- 



*' In tracing these fluctuations, it must be stressed that neither the estimated number 

 of Navahos of school age nor tlie estimated total Navaho population can be regarded as 

 fully reliable benchmarks. With the majority of Navaho children not enrolled in any 

 school until after World War II, the estimates of their number are as unreliable as those 

 of the total population. It should be added, in this connection, that the Navaho police 

 were active during this period in corralling Navaho children in an effort to force them 

 to attend school. This practice undoubtedly resulted in the concealment of many children 

 from the authorities. With the cessation of this practice in 1935, the reported numbers 

 of school-age Navahos experienced a substantial rise. 



*^ In 1935, the Hopi Agency reported 199 school-age Navahos out of a total Navaho 

 population estimated at 3,458. The actual number of school-age Navahos in this population 

 would probably be at least 1,000 higher than reported. 



780-568—60 7 



