Johnston] NAVAHO POPULATION 131 



this figure is a dismal foreshadow of the many fanciful estimates 

 that were to follow: 



". . . . They [the Navaho Apaches] assembled more than 30,000 [warriors, pre- 

 sumably] to go to war in less than 8 days. This is a very conservative estimate, 

 because the Sergeant Major of the Spanish soldiers told me that once when he 

 had fought them in a war he had seen more than 200,000 as near as he could esti- 

 mate (sic) ." [Benavides, 1945, p. 85.] 



In an earlier annotation to Benavides' report, Hodge and Lummis 

 express doubt that the Navaho could actually have niunbered as much 

 as 4,000 at this time. Later in the I7th century. Padres Delgado and 

 Irigoyen were reported to have "interviewed" some 4,000 Navahos, 

 suggesting the existence of a much larger population (Benavides, 1916, 

 pp. 44 and 59 f.). These early estimates should generally be viewed 

 in the light of similar statements by missionaries elsewhere in the 

 Americas. Their proselytyzing zeal apparently prompted them to 

 frequently exaggerate the number of potential converts to Christianity. 



The first apparently realistic estimate of the Navaho population was 

 reported over a century later, when, in 1Y76, a Spanish official returned 

 from a visit to "all" of the Navaho hogans. His report to the governor 

 of New Mexico stated that the Navaho consisted of some 700 families 

 totaling about 3,500 people. At about this time, the total body of 

 "Apaches" was estimated to number some 5,000 warriors. This latter 

 estimate, reported at the Council of Mondova, was accompanied by 

 the statement that the "Lipanes, Gilenos, and Nabajos [Navahol" 

 were among the most numerous tribes in the Apache group (Bolton, 

 1914, vol. 2, p. 153).^^ 



In his account of his exploration of the southwest region in 1805-07, 

 Zebulon Pike (1811, p. 337) makes the following brief reference to 

 the Navaho : 



The 'Nanahaws' are situated to the Northwest of Santa Fe, and are frequently 

 at war with the Spaniards. They are supposed to be some 2,000 warriors strong. 



On the basis of this figure, Schermerhorn (1814, vol. 2, p. 29) esti- 

 mated the total Navaho population at 6,500 persons.^" From this time 

 until the rounding up of the bulk of the tribe at Fort Sumner, the 

 several estimates of the Navaho population serve merely to indicate 

 the prevailing ignorance with regard to this tribe. For example, 

 Gregg's (1855) estimate, pertaining to the decade of the 1830's, was 



"» Van Valkenburgh and McPhee, 1938, p. 5, refers to the same survey as having been 

 conducted by Fathers Dominguiz and Escalante. 



8" The assumption that the total population of an Indian tribe would number 3.5 times 

 Its warrior force is not unrealistic, but neither is it precise. Wissler (1936 c, p. 6) found ; 

 on the average, 8 to 10 persons, including 2 to 3 warriors, per tent or "lodge." This 

 would imply a warrior population somewhere between 20 and 37 percent of the total 

 population, or about 28 percent, on the average. Considering the probable age-sex distri- 

 bution of these aboriginal populations (with a median age not much over 17 years), it 

 seems unlikely that their warrior population could greatly have exceeded one-fourth of 

 their total population. 



