Disease Change and the Role of Medicine: The Navajo Experience

2. Economic and Demographic Change on the Navajo Reservation

Economic and Demographic Change on the Navajo Reservation THE PRERESERVATION PERIOD NAVAJOS probably entered north-central NewMexicoduring the sixteenth century. As a result of pressure from other Indians, as well as from Spaniards, Mexicans, and Anglo-Americans, they moved southwest and by the first half of the 18th century, perhaps as early as 1706, they were at Canyon de Chelly (James and Lindsay 1973). A small number may have moved even farther west (D in fig. 2.1) as early as the 1620s (Kemrer 1974:127). From 1750 to 1799 the Navajos probably settled as far west as First Mesa, on what is now the Hopi Reservation (in D in fig. 2.1). By 1867 they had moved west of Third Mesa (Kemrer 1974:129-130). Brugge (1972) maintains that by the 1780s or 1790s Navajos were using land as far west as what is now Tuba City (in G in fig. 2.1). The Navajo expansion to lower and drier areas in southwestern Colorado, southeastern Utah, and west to the Colorado and Little Colorado rivers was associated with sheepherding, which became the dominant Navajo subsistence activity by 1800 (Hester 1962:84). Raids and warfare to capture livestock and slaves from Navajo communities were terminated in 1846 when Anglo-American 2 Economic and Demographic Change / 27 FIGURE 2.1 SUCCESSIVE ADDITIONS TO THE NAVAJO RESERVATION, 1869—1934 A: Treaty of June 1, 1868; B: Executive Order of October 29, 1878;C: Executive Order of January 6, 1880; D: Executive Order of December 16, 1882; E: Executive Order of May 17, 1884; F: Executive Order of April 24, 1886; G: Executive Order of January 8, 1900; H: Executive Order of November 14, 1901;I: Executive Order of May 15,1905; and Act of March 1, 1933;J: Executive Orders of November 9, 1907, and January 28, 1908; K: Executive Order of December 1, 1913; L: Executive Orders of January 19, 1918, and May 23, 1930,and Act of June 14, 1934; M: Act of May 23, 1930; N: Act of June 14, 1934 (after Underbill 1963:149.) control was introduced. When the Americansentered the scene, warfare became "exterminationist" (Kemrer 1974:135). The most devastating campaign was led by Kit Carson in 1863—64, a campaign that destroyed livestock, crops, and people, and resulted in the incarceration of 8,000 Navajos at the Bosque Redondo from 1864 to 1868. 28 I Economic and Demographic Change Assuming that perhaps 2,000 Navajos were never captured, in 1864 the population wasabout 10,000. Hester (1962:86) estimates that in 1700 there were about 2,000 Navajos. Thus, during 160 years their numbers increased fivefold. This rapid growth apparently wasdue to the growing importance of sheepherding, the acquisition of agricultural techniques from the Pueblos (many of whomjoined the Navajos after the revolt of 1680), and the relative isolation which protected the Navajos from raids and especially from epidemics. THE EARLY RESERVATION PERIOD: 1868-1929 In 1868 the Navajos signed a treaty that allowed them to return to a reservation straddling the New Mexico-Arizona border (A in fig. 2.1). Since their traditional land to the eastwas largely occupied by Anglo-Americans,many Navajos from those areas also settled on the reservation or to the west of it on land that in 1882 became a reservation (D in fig. 2.1) for Hopis and other Indians (Kemrer 1974:136). Earlier that year Inspector C. H. Howard had estimated that 8,000 Navajos were living beyond their reservation boundaries in Arizona, and he recommended "extension of the reservation under a new agency to look after both the Hopis and the western Navajos" (Brugge 1972:17-18). As figure 2.1 shows, large additions were made to the reservation over the next twenty years, and smaller additions continued to be made until the 1930s. Most of this land had been used prior to the nineteenth century by Navajos and other tribes, including Yavapais, Havasupais, Paiutes, and Hopis (Brugge 1972). This wasparticularlytrue in the area of Tuba City (in area G of fig. 2.1), where water and farminghad existed for centuries. After the return of the Navajos from the Bosque Redondo, sheep were provided by the government, and the flocks increased rapidly. At the same time, the Southwest entered a period of reduced rainfall, which, combined with heavygrazing, had unfortunate consequences for the range land,particularly because herds of horses also increased considerably in the...