Johnston] NAVAHO POPULATION 101 



It is evident from the figures quoted previously, however, that the 

 overwhelming majority of the Indians in Arizona and New Mexico 

 were excluded from the enumeration of 1870, despite the tenor evident 

 in the above quotation. 



The instructions regarding tlie enumeration of Indians in the 1880 

 census reflect an efTort toward giving the concept of "Indians not 

 taxed" some degree of operational significance : 



By the phrase "Indians not taxed" is meant Indians living on reservations 

 under the care of Government agents, or roaming individually, or in bands, 

 over unsettled tracts of country. 



Indians not in tribal relations, whether full-bloods or half-breeds, vt'ho are 

 found mingled with the white population, residing in white families, engaged 

 as servants or laborers, or living in huts or wigwams on the outskirts of towns 

 or settlements are to be regarded as a part of the ordinary population of the 

 country for the constitutional purposes of the apportionment of Representa- 

 tives among the States, and are to be embraced in the enumeration. [Wright, 

 1900, p. 168.] 



With regard to the population of the Navaho Indians, the implica- 

 tions of the above instructions and interpretations are readily ap- 

 parent. Except for a few scattered individuals, the Navaho did not 

 come under the purview of any of the enumerations conducted prior 

 to 1890, and their number must therefore remain an indeterminate 

 fraction of the crude estimates of the total Indian population of the 

 Territory of New Mexico that are reported in their earlier censuses. 

 Those Indians which were enumerated in this territory before 1890 

 are likely to have been Eastern Pueblo, Zuni, or scattered remnants of 

 Apache bands. 



The first special enumeration of the total Indian population of 

 the United States, carried out in 1890, did not involve any change in 

 the official status of the Indians themselves. The Indian popula- 

 tion which was enumerated was again classified into the two categories 

 of "Indians not taxed" and "Indians taxed." The operational defini- 

 tions given to these concepts were substantially the same in 1890 

 as in 1880 (ibid., pp. 181-182) . 



In order to minimize the possibility of duplicate counts or omis- 

 sions, Indians living on reservations were enumerated by special 

 agents appointed directly by the Office of the Superintendent of the 

 Census, while those living off reservations were covered by the regu- 

 lar census enumerators. The special agents appointed to cover the 

 reservations were, for the most part, staff members of the several 

 Indian agencies or individuals residing on or near the respective 

 reservations. 



In anticipation of the difficulties engendered by the need to dichot- 

 omize the Indian population into the categories "taxed" and "not 

 taxed," the following instructions were added : 



