Johnston] NAVAHO POPULATION 97 



(3) Although some effort was made to separate the ration books 

 issued to Whites residing in the area, there remains the possibility that 

 some Hopis or other non-Navaho Indians might have been included 

 in the counts obtained, or, conversely, that some Navahos might have 

 received issues of ration books within the Hopi Agency area. 



The Navajo Agency officials themselves fully recognized these 

 inherent limitations when they merely concluded that the Navaho 

 population was "in excess of 60,000" at this time.^^ 



It is evident that the population records maintained by the Navajo 

 Agency have undergone considerable improvement during this last 

 period. For the first time, agency officials have been able to utilize 

 a number of independent records to arrive at plausible estimates of 

 the total population within their administrative area. Although the 

 assumptions underlying some of these estimates and the techniques 

 employed are open to question, the general trend has been toward the 

 development of a fairly adequate conception of the total population 

 residing in the Navaho administrative area. 



However, these records are still characterized by the persistence of 

 a number of important defects and limitations of coverage. The basic 

 source of information, the Navajo Agency census rolls, are now 

 seriously out of date. No reservationwide enumerative survey has 

 been conducted since the preparation of these rolls in 1928-29, so that 

 all of the revisions that have been made on these rolls are based 

 ultimately upon the voluntary registration of individual Navahos who 

 present themselves at the census office at Window Rock, and the ad- 

 mittedly deficient reports of Navaho births, deaths, and migration. 

 Despite the laudable diligence of the staff of the census office, there can 

 be little doubt that the rolls that are still in use stand in need of major 

 revision based upon an actual census type field survey throughout the 

 Navaho administrative area.^^ 



Secondly, there remains the growing problem of maintaining ade- 

 quate records on the fluctuating numbers of Navahos who are moving 

 off the reservation and establishing permanent or temporary resi- 

 dences away from the Navaho administrative area. In theory, it can 

 be argued that these individuals would make every effort to retain 

 their contact with the reservation, in view of the anticipated and 

 actual benefits to be derived from membership in the Navaho tribe. 

 In practice, however, many of these persons may become sufficiently 

 absorbed, both socially and psychologically, in the general population 

 as to lose their identities as Navahos. In particular, births and deaths 

 occurring among the permanent off-reservation Navaho population 



61 This conclusion was supported, incidentally, by an estimate made of the number of 

 enrolled Navahos in 1947. The estimate was made by Howard Johnson, of the Navajo 

 Agency staff, who arrived at a figure of 61,051 (Bureau of Indian Affairs. 1947, p. fi). 



62 Some of the more recent efforts at improving these rolls are described on pp. 180-185. 



