98 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 197 



may not be adequately or completely reported to the Navajo Agency 

 census office. 



Thirdly, the task of properly identifying individual Navahos, 

 either for purposes of listing them with the appropriate family group, 

 or for purposes of record checks and other verifications, remains ex- 

 tremely difficult. In addition to the difficulties of transcribing 

 Navaho names by means of the English alphabet, there is the persistent 

 practice whereby individual Navahos are known by a plurality of 

 names, thus greatly increasing the possibility of duplicate entries and 

 errors in classification. 



Finally, the plethora of administrative records now available to 

 the officials of the Navajo Agency has apparently created a curious 

 situation wherein any given population estimate can immediately be 

 countered by a number of alternative and equally plausible estimates 

 derived from other sources. In the absence of any up-to-date enumer- 

 ation of the entire population of the area, no single population esti- 

 mate can be said to enjoy completely authoritative support. 



By way of summary, it must be concluded that the fundamental 

 defect that is inherent in all of the population records presently avail- 

 able to the officials of the Navajo Agency is the lack of an adequate, 

 recent field survey designed to obtain demographic information on 

 the population of the Navaho. None of the administrative records 

 presently maintained have been designed to provide demographic 

 information on the population as a whole, however adequate they may 

 be in other respects.^^ 



THE BUREAU OF THE CENSUS^* 



The first enumeration of the entire Indian population of the United 

 States was undertaken by the Bureau of the Census as a part of its 

 decennial census in 1890.^^ The three censuses preceding that of 

 1890 provided separate tabulations of tlie Indian population living 

 "outside of tribal relations," but these censuses did not cover the 

 overwhelming majority of Indians who were still living in various 



5" My recommendations in regard to the establishment of a systetn of population regis- 

 tration supplemented by periodic surveys on an area-sample basis are detailed on pp. 

 185-188. 



^ The Bureau of the Census was a subdivision of the Department of the Interior until 

 Feb. 14, 1903, when it was transferred to the Department of Commerce and Labor. When, 

 in 1913, the Department of Commerce became a separate entity, the Bureau of the Census 

 became a permanent bureau of the Department of Commerce. For bibliographic purposes, 

 all references to census data are listed under "Bureau of the Census" rather than 

 "Department of the Interior," "Department of Commei'ce and Labor," or "Department of 

 Commerce." 



^5 Bureau of the Census, 1894. It should be noted, however, that the census of 1850 did 

 incorporate the results of the unique Schoolcraft (1854) report on the Indian tribes of the 

 United States. This report provided estimates of the Indian population of tribes in the 

 Eastern United States for 1789, 1825, and 1853. The tribes in the Southwest were esti- 

 mated as of 1853 only. Part IV contains reports on the Navaho tribe by Maj. E. Backus 

 and Lt. Col. J. H. Easton. The former report was relatively objective, while the latter 

 was essentially antagonistic to the Navaho. 



