Johnston] 



NAVAHO POPULATION 



107 



pressed the view that the census figure was too low, wliile that of the 

 Bureau of Indian Affairs was too high. Dr. Dixon's statement (1915, 

 pp. 78-79) was as follows :^^ 



The enumeration of the Navajo is of necessity somewhat uncertain, owing 

 to the local conditions. The tribe is a nomadic one, roaming over a very large 

 extent of country, so that an absolutely accurate enumeration would be an ex- 

 tremely diflacult, if not impossible task. Comparison, therefore, with returns 

 of even greater uncertainty (since founded almost wholly on estimates) made in 

 the reports of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs are of little real value .... 

 The discrepancy between this figure of about 28,000, which has been returned 

 in the reports of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs with little variation since 

 1905, and that of 22,455, obtained by the present census, is large. That 28,000 

 is a figure somewhat too large and that the enumeration of the census is too 

 small seems probable. An exact enumeration, however, is, as already stated, 

 practically impossible. 



Table 23. — Reported NavaJio popiflation Tjy sex and State of residence — 1910-11 



1 Bureau of the Census, 1915, table 30. 



2 Bureau of Indian Affairs, 1910, table 7. These figures were originally labeled as estimates. 



3 Data not available. 



^ Bureau of Indian Affairs, 1911 , table 2. These figures were originally labeled as estimates. 



5 Navahos residing in Utah were generally included in the statistics for Arizona, while Navahos residing 

 n other States were not included by the Navaho agencies reporting at this time. 



6 Numbers too small to warrant computation of percentages. 



Without assuming the accuracy of either of the 1910 figures for the 

 Navaho population in Arizona, it is possible to infer that the 1910 

 census of Navaho Indians was relatively complete in its coverage of 

 the New Mexico portion of the reservation, but that it was seriously 

 deficient in its coverage of the northern and western reaches of the 

 reservation area. Dr. Hoffman's article sheds some additional light on 



6" Dr. Dison himself noted the inexplicable variations in the year-to-year estimates of 

 Navaho population as reported by the agents to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, making 

 reference to "a sudden rise" to over 20,000 in 1894, and "a still greater rise" from 21,379 

 in 1905 to 28,544 in 1906. 



780-568—66- 



