Johnston] 



NAVAHO POPULATION 



95 



ration book count of children aged 6 to 18, inclusive, was made in tlie 

 Tuba City School District, comprising land management districts 1, 

 2, and 3. The resultant total was divided by the total population of 

 these districts as reported in the preliminary tabulations (unpub- 

 lished) of the 1940 census. This computation produced a proportion of 

 42.8 percent. On the basis of these data, the Navajo Agency officials 

 adopted the figure 40 percent as the proportion of the total Navaho 

 j)opulation that could be assumed to be of school age.*" 



It is, of course, apparent from all existing age distributions for the 

 Navaho that the Navaho population is considerably younger than that 

 of the general population of the United States, so that the figure of 

 26 percent is far too low. On the other hand, the figure of 40 percent 

 would appear to be almost equally in error in the opposite direction. 



Table 20. — Sample data from the enrolled Navaho population — 1939^ 



' The data shown in this table were transcribed by me during the summer of 1957 directly fiom the rolls on 

 file at the Navajo Agency census office at Window Rock, Ariz., with the permission and cooperation of Robert 

 W. Young, assistant to the superintendent of the Navajo Agency, and Wilbur Morgan, supervisor of the 

 census office. There are seven rolls in all, one for each of the subagencies listed. A sample was obtained 

 from each roll by selecting every 10th page, starting with a randomly selected number between 1 and 10. 

 The age and sex of each individual person listed on a sample page, and of each member of a family whose head 

 was listed on a sample page, was recorded. This procedure provided data on a sample of approximately 

 10 percent. 



- "Total Navaho" is the sum of the sample totals from the seven subagencies. It is approximately equal 

 to 10 percent of the actual number ol persons on the roll. 



3 In order to estimate the adequacy of these rolls as sources of information on the population of the Navaho, 

 two sets of data were compiled. The "Unadjusted" set Includes only persons who were listed on the 1939 

 roll. This list comprises persons enumerated in the original survey of 1928-29, plus reported births in the 

 period from 1929 to 1939, minus reported deaths occurring in the same period. The "Adjusted" set comprises 

 persons in the first set plus persons who were added to the rolls after 1939 and whose dates of birth indicated 

 that they were alive in 1939. The differences between these two sets of data are therefore a part ial indication 

 of the incompleteness of both the original survey in 1928-29 and of the registration of births in the decade 

 following 1929. 



^" Ibid., p. 3. The latter estimate implied a total population of about 61,000 at this time, 

 which is about 25 percent lower than the high estimate of 82,000. 



