For Our Navajo People: Dine Letters, Speeches, and Petitions, 1900-1960

INTRODUCTION

For Our Navajo People presents the words of Navajo men, women, children, and communities. Through letters, speeches, and petitions, Diné individuals and groups address six crucial, overlapping subjects: land, community, education, rights, government, and identity. Each of these subjects forms a chapter in this book. Chapter introductions and accompanying brief introductory material provide necessary context. Photographs from archival sources also constitute an integral part of this volume.

Almost none of this material has been previously published. Discovered in the course of research for Diné: A History of the Navajos (also published at this time by the University of New Mexico Press), these letters, speeches, and petitions make clear the Navajo commitment to place and their determination to exercise control over their lives and lands.

In order to produce a volume of moderate length, we have edited some documents. Most selections have not been abbreviated. In addition, we have chosen not to correct spelling or grammar, but rather have decided to let each document maintain its original character. It should go without saying that many selections contained no such errors.

For Our Navajo People: Diné Letters, Speeches, and Petitions, 1900–1960 includes the words of prominent political leaders, but it also furnishes the statements of less well known individuals. Photographs supplement and complement the words offered here. For example, the artistry of weavers reflects the importance of land, community, and identity.

Our title comes from a speech given by Navajo Tribal Council delegate Ned Hatathli in the autumn of 1955. Hatathli spoke about the importance of planning for the future, of developing human resources as well as material resources, and of improving the land for which the Navajos had fought. These actions were important, he said, for our Navajo people. Throughout this book we witness individuals and communities addressing the common good, speaking out for the Navajo people.

This book takes 1900 as its starting point, when most Americans assumed that Indian reservations were temporary enclaves and that Indian communities were destined for disappearance. It concludes in 1960, by which time it had become quite clear that Indians were here to stay. Although substantial evidence is available from the 1960s to the present, material from the prior six decades is much more difficult to find. By focusing on this era, we not only are able to bring forth voices that have been heard less often, but we are also able to see this period for what it constituted: the time in which the foundation of the modern Navajo nation was established.

There is a vast literature about American Indians in general and Navajos in particular. However, most of it has stressed the actions and the words of non-Indians. Indians become the acted upon, the victims, the people to whom things happened. Such accounts stress defeat and dispossession. They appear to concentrate on shortcomings and failures. In many instances they exacerbate existing stereotypes.

We hope that this volume represents a more accurate and more productive vision of the Native past. It reaffirms anthropologist Sherry Ortner’s claim that history is not something that happens to people, but something they make. Navajos made their own history, and these pages provide eloquent testimony in support of this generalization.

This book therefore reflects a new Indian history. Rather than concentrating on federal policies and the actions of non-Indians, the new Indian history centers on Native actions and the ability of Native communities to persist, adapt, and prosper. Instead of portraying Indians solely as victims, this history emphasizes agency—the ways in which Native groups sought to hold onto their land, create and sustain viable economies, maintain their communities, educate their young, affirm their rights, govern themselves, and find ways to maintain their heritage while forging a brighter future.

At the start of the twentieth century, few non-Navajo observers would have predicted that the Diné would be so successful in gaining greater control over their lives and lands. Individuals, groups, companies, and the federal government applied pressure. They sought access to Navajo oil and coal. They attempted to assimilate Diné children through the imposition of boarding schools.

For Our Navajo People: Diné Letters, Speeches, and Petitions, 1900–1960 demonstrates how Navajos responded to these challenges. It reveals changing perspectives toward education, for example, as this century progressed. Throughout these six decades, the Diné never lost sight of fundamental objectives and understandings. They knew where they belonged. They were determined to remain.

1

LAND

INTRODUCTION

The traditional Navajo country of the American Southwest includes four sacred mountains. Navajo teachings hold that the Navajos emerged here into this region, that the Holy People determined this was the proper place for them to live. Although the Navajos could not maintain their control of this entire domain, they succeeded in holding on to most of Diné Bikeyah. Today the Navajo Nation comprises 25,000 square miles. Its very existence represents a significant triumph.

In 1868, the Navajos incarcerated at Fort Sumner in east central New Mexico signed one of the final treaties concluded by the United States with Indian communities. The treaty provided an initial land base. This acreage would be more than quadrupled over the next seventy years. At a time when many Indian nations in the West lost much of their land, the Navajos increased their base.

However, as the twentieth century began, the Diné confronted increasing pressure involving use of their country. Outsiders wanted to drill for oil. Federal employees sought to reduce the number of sheep, goats, cattle, and horses grazing on Navajo land. Long before the current Navajo-Hopi land dispute, the two communities clashed over access to and utilization of resources. At the same time, as did other Westerners, the Navajo often saw in their lands the opportunity to develop their economy and thus help residents of their communities. Not surprisingly, the Diné did not always agree among themselves about what to do. Local and regional interests conflicted with Navajo national goals. For example, Jacob C. Morgan of Farmington, New Mexico spoke for the concerns of people from his region who wanted to gain more from the development of oil resources, whereas Chee Dodge believed that such development should benefit all of the Navajo Nation. Even within a particular community, local residents could disagree over who had access to the land and how that land should be used.

If the Navajos by the start of the twenty-first century had become an urbanized people, for most of the previous century they had been a rural one. Certainly through the first decades of the twentieth century most Navajo children grew up with livestock. The livestock reduction program imposed by the federal government in the 1930s helped hasten the transition to a wage work economy and pushed many Diné off the land.

The documents in this chapter offer telling glimpses into continuity and change in Navajo land use. They reveal the importance of decisions made in regard to how the land would be employed. And they underline how much the land mattered. This, after all, is where the Holy People had meant for the Diné to live. This is where they would stay.

1. CHEE DODGE, FEBRUARY 2, 1914

Chee Dodge (ca. 1857–1947) or Hastiin Adiits’a’ii (Man Who Interprets) was a key political leader in Navajo life throughout most of this time period. There was significant pressure early in the twentieth century to divide the Navajo reservation into individually held parcels of land through a process known as allotment. With Arizona and New Mexico gaining statehood, pressure also increased for greater exercise of state authority over Navajo lives and lands. Here Dodge informs Secretary of the Interior Franklin Lane about these dangers and the current status of Navajo lands.

Washington Pass, Fort Defiance P.O. Arizona,

February 2nd, 1914.

The Hon. Franklin K. Lane,

Washington, D.C.

Honorable Dear Secretary:

I thank you for your kind inquiry of January 12th and in answer will say:

1-As to myself, I am among the very few members of the tribe who could get along if they had their property and were intirely independent of the Indian Bureau, but this condition would not be a good thing for the tribe.

2-My reasons for so thinking are as follows:

The tribe is uneducated. Aside from this children in the different schools there are not even 400 members of the whole tribe of about 25,000 who understand and speak the English language. Ten years ago they had but one Government boarding school for the whole tribe and, before that time, the children were not kept long enough in school to be benefited.

If placed under state government the Navajos would never be educated and civilized; what good people have been trying to do for us for would undone and the tribe would be ruined and pauperized within a very short time.

The character of our reservation is such that its division or allotment is not feasible and would prove our ruin.

3-We are pleased that the Government has begun building more schools for our children, but we have no trade school, and such a school is a very urgent necessity for our large tribe. A trade school would furnish efficient journeymen for the tribe who are necessary for the advancement of the Navajos, to build better homes, etc., and it would also enable them to compete with their white neighbors.

Whilst two large irrigation systems are being constructed for us, the tribe as a whole is more in need of development of water for stock purposes, and of small, inexpensive irrigation systems: hardly anything has been done in that line.

Last but not least, our reservation ought to be kept intact and land within the reservation ought to be secured for us; we need it and are willing to pay for it by pledging and selling our ripe timber.

These are my honest convictions, and I beg you to give these points your kind consideration.

Very respectfully yours,

Chee Dodge

2. CHEE DODGE, MARCH 2, 1923

Chee Dodge became the first chairman of the Navajo tribal Council in July 1923, five months after he wrote this letter. As this letter suggests, Dodge often clashed with Jacob Morgan. Dodge argued that proceeds from oil development in northwestern New Mexico should benefit all Diné, whereas Morgan contended that Navajos from this region should harvest more of the gain from this revenue.

St. Michaels, Ariz., March 2, 1923.

Honorable Charles H. Burke

Washington, D.C.

Hon. Dear Mr. Commissioner:

In view of the recent opposition brought to bear in some sections against the appointment of the Secretary Hon. A. B. Fall of Herbert J. Hagerman as special Commissioner of the Navajo tribe of Indians, allow me to express my sentiments to you in regard to this appointment as well as the sentiments of the greater majority of Navajos on the reservation. With the exception of a few misguided Navajos in the immediate oil section of the Shiprock jurisdiction, all the Navajos feel that this appointment is a great boon for them and that it is the only move on the part of the Government which will safeguard the rights of the Navajo tribe as a whole and we wish to express our appreciation to the authorities for this timely supervision of our interests.

It is not only the Navajo Indians who appreciate and acknowledge the wisdom of this appointment but all the leading citisens of towns surrounding the reservation who come in contact with the Indians and are interested in their welfare declare that this act on the part of the Government was to the very best interests of all the Navajos.

The rumored opposition on the part of some of the Indians of the Shiprock jurisdiction and the threatened uprising, if there is any truth in it, which is somewhat doubtful, is, no doubt, instigated by some interested Whites whose plans of grabbing the best leases for little or nothing, have been overthrown by this recent appointment. At the tribal Councils to be held in the future under the direction of the new Commissioner this opposition will be easily overcome and the Justice of letting all the members of the Navajo tribe share in the proceeds of this oil boom be made apparent to all.

Very truly yours,

Signed Chee Dodge

3. NAVAJO TRIBAL COUNCIL, JULY 8, 1926

Here council members acknowledge the problem posed by surplus horses and address several other key issues. As most Navajos, in fact, did not believe there were too many horses, we can assume that this statement came only after considerable prodding from federal officials.

We, the members of the Navajo Tribal Council, meeting at Fort Defiance, Arizona, July 8, 1926, adopt the following resolutions:

I.   We realize that our people have thousands of horses which are of no use to them and which they should get rid of. These useless horses eat grass, which would support many thousands of heads of sheep and cattle which would bring in to us a large revenue. We know now that we are greatly hurt in our dealings with Washington about extensions of our Reservations and money for the rental of outside land by having so many horses wasting the range. We propose to do our best and make our people see that this is true and to persuade them that they should get rid of a great many of these horses and secure better stallions so as to build up for freighting and for traveling around with. In this we ask the help of Washington and of our Commissioner and superintendents. We want to get as much as we can for these excess horses but are willing to sell or exchange them for the best price which can be had for them in order to arrange the matter and preserve our ranges. We ask that our Commissioner, thru the superintendents, find out where and for what consideration these horses can be sold in order that we may know how they can disposed of. We will go out among our people and try to them to agree to any plan along these lines.

II.   We are in favor of setting aside for the next three years twenty percent of that part of the tribal fund available for distribution each year before the distribution is made to the different superintendents, that is twenty dollars out of every hundered, said money to be used for the purchase of or rental of lands or pastures outside and near to the Reservation, for the benefit of the Navajo Indians who live or range outside the Reservation. This, we think, is fair because it will help relieve the ranges inside the reservation.

III. We are not against paying the re-imbursable charges on the Hogback and Ganado Projects when funds are available for that purpose, but we think that for the present no more funds, should be used on these big projects. There are, thruout the Reservation, a good many small tracts of land irrigated by means of small streams, dams and ditches made by our Navajos themselves. These are on the Eastern and Western slopes of the Chuska and Lukachukais Mts., and in other places on the reservation. We ask the help of Washington in making better these little ditches, dams and projects before any more money is spent on the larger projects which benefit only a few of our people.

IV. We ask the President and the Congress at Washington to define the situation as to our non-Treaty lands and to arrange matters so that oil development can go ahead on the non-Treaty lands in the same way that it is going ahead on the Treaty lands. We see no difference between Treaty lands and non-Treaty lands, and we believe they are both alike and that the royalties on both kinds of land should be paid to us. Oil was discovered on the Hogback in the Treaty area of the reservation; thru this discovery much good is coming to us. There tracts were sold bringing a bonus and now royalties are being paid to our tribal funds. We want all the Bonus we can get for leases but realize that the main oil income will be from royalties. Oil has been discovered at a place in the non-Treaty area of the reservation but development has been stopped there because Washington can not agree about the situation on the non-Treaty lands. We want this development to continue so that if there is oil it can be developed and we ask Washington to see to it that the matter is settle so that we may know where we stand in order that oil, if it is there, can be taken out and our royalties paid on it, the same way on the non-Treaty as on the Treaty areas.

V.  We are glad that the Chas. H. Burke school at Ft. Wingate is being built for the Navajos. We will be glad to send our children to that school. We hope and ask that the school be made, as far as it can be, a industrial school where our children can be taught trades which will be useful to them and help them to make a living as workmen, and also help them in the raising of stock and the making of homes and farms.

Signed and unanimously adopted by the following delegates.

J. C. Morgan

Deshna Clahcheschillige

Robert Martin

George Bancroft

Dugalchee

Hosteen Nez

Louis Watchman

Becenti Bega

Zagenito

Hosteen Usaelin

Todechene Bardony

Hosteen Begoiden Bega

4. JACOB C. MORGAN, FEBRUARY 18, 1927

Jacob C. Morgan served a term as Navajo Tribal Council Chairman, but gained his greatest recognition as a spokesman for regional rather than national Navajo interests. In a letter to the Farmington, New Mexico newspaper, Morgan expresses his opposition to tapping the Navajo oil fund to pay for extensions to the reservation. A graduate of the Hampton Institute in Virginia, Morgan used his education to good advantage in arguing for the causes in which he so passionately believed.

Everybody has heard about the Navajo delegation that made a trip to Washington where a supposed-to-be tribal business was transacted by them. The business referred to is a bill introduced in the house asking for an appropriation of a million dollars with which it was proposed to purchase more land for the sheep and cattle men of the tribe. It is sad to relate that this business was not tribal as it did not meet the approval, but it has stimulated much sharp criticisms by the Navajos all over the Reservation. In some places very lively debate on these matters have taken place and in all probability many more may take place. It is well the Navajos should awake themselves to see what is going on.

Last year there was quite a stir when the Government approved the use of $100,000 for Lee’s Ferry Bridge in Arizona. This year it is about the land extension for the Indians. One hundred townships of R.R. lands have been recommended by the delegation to be purchased for the Navajos. Sure, Navajos believe in pawn business. Like they do in the trading posts, some body is going to pawn the whole reservation for millions of dollars.

Since this matter has come before the public I wish it to be known that I do not favor nor approve this plan for several reasons. In the first place this business was transacted by self-appointed delegates in opposition to the decision of the last general Tribal Council at Fort Defiance. It would have been a grand idea for Chairman Dodge and Commissioner Hagerman to call extra council for this matter, instead of picking a few men and two superintendents, leaving out the man who has charge of land upon which oil is being operated. Now suppose more land is given to the Indians, would they improve it as they ought to? No. But there will be a continual trouble, especially along the railroad where many people are living. It would mean more whiskey and drunkenness; more bootleggers and murders, and therefore no improvement of homes.

On the other hand let us see how the tribe can be benefited by the use of oil money. First of all the twelve million acres of land which comprise the reservation proper can be made useful by developing water on every available land which the people could occupy and make good use of. There are great tracts of land on all parts of the reservation, especially in the Western Navajo country, that need such development, whereas it is now, the people do not try to live there because of lack of water. But as soon as that great country is brought under water it will become a great sheep and cattle land for the people who are now crowding along the railroad where there are no pastures for the stock. I favor further:

(1) Not more land, but more EDUCATION and good homes for the people to live in where they can be happy.

(2) At present more water development all over the reservation by artesian wells, springs improved, reservoirs, etc.

(3) That tribal oil money be used for establishing sawmills to supply much needed lumber with which to build better and more sanitary homes by the people if we wish to have better health.

(4) That tribal oil funds be used for erection of trachoma and tuberculosis hospitals where those suffering from the dread diseases could be treated and cared for instead of helping illegal medicine men to practice graft on their people.

(5) More medical doctors to help to battle against all kinds of sickness among the Navajos and use the oil money for the purpose.

(6) Good roads for transportation purposes in all parts of the reservation. More farm equipment and seeds of all kind can come under this head.

(7) Well equipped schools where useful trades and domestic science could be taught. These should be at home where climatic conditions are not so fatal to the health of the children who are now in school.

(8) That with the use of tribal oil money arrangement could be made to put boys and girls who show willingness to learn in the nearby public and high schools where they can learn twice as fast as they do in the Government schools.

These and many other things I am thinking about now and not land. In conclusion let me repeat that after all, some of the Navajos greatest needs at this time are more medical service and trachoma and tuberculosis hospitals, establishing sawmills to supply more lumber to build better houses by the tribe, to conserve water by every means, artesian wells, developing of springs and reservoirs, to catch the mountain streams which now go to waste every year. We, the Navajos, who believe in better health and more education will do well to think on these things now, than to think about the extension of lands.

J. C. Morgan

Farmington, New Mexico

5. JOHN H. LEE, OCTOBER 11, 1936

In this letter, John H. Lee reveals that Navajos struggled not only with imposed federal land policies but also internally with disagreement over access to and use of the land. Even given the size of the Navajo country, there was not enough acreage for all and individuals and families could disagree about who was entitled to use particular areas. In especially difficult economic times, these clashes gained additional intensity.

Gallup, N. Mexico

Soil Conservation Ser.

Oct. 11, ’36

Window Rock, Arizona

Superintendent E. R. Fryer

Dear Mr. Fryer:

I have been desiring to write to you a long time. This was about the case which we didn’t get any satisfaction from. On August 8, at court held at Chin Lee by (John Curely). Mr. Curely did not recognize my family as its should be done. As we know Mr. Curely was on Long Mustache side mostly, so nothing has been done.

For this reason I would like to ask you to give us a second trial or review the case. This time we want several white officials with us or be present. And I would like to get a chance for my brother + sister to say something for themselves and for the land which we want for future. I might say that Mr. Long-Mustache is a man like J. C. Morgan of Shiprock or Farmington. Some way he is against government project. Once I heard him say that he did not want to reduce his stocks. He has several heads of sheep. This is what make him move so much.

He should have two (2) places for sheep camp—one for winter grazing and second place for summer grazing besides farm-land. As we told Mr. Curely-the Long Mustache has 1—Six (6) places to live. He and Des-Chee-ni-Begay. first-five (5) mile west of ChinLee. At Red Masa for grazing (him + Des-Chee-ni-Begay).

2—Second—Right close to Black Mountain—(Him + Des-Chee-ni-Begay) the have two hogan for each there. They are herding their sheep all four direction for grazing purpose.

3—Third—Called. Sheep corral—four (4) mile away from Black Mt. two more hogan for him + Des-Chee-ni-Begay. Use all four (4) direction for grazing too.

4—four-place-North side of Noisy Lake-eight (8) mile west of ChinLee, two more Hogans for both-one each. Use all four (4) directions again for grazing. Both are doing according to their own will. Des-Chee-ni-Begay is doing the same thing as Long Mustache did.

5—five-North-West of Red Round Rock-which is in our place. This time he moved in too close to us. There he built one pine log cabin and one hogan + a sheep corral. According to what my family thinks, they are doing this for trouble someway. Because they have never asked or got permission from the owners. Also they are trying to drive us out—it’s because we have a good spring there. This spring is enough for one family too, and this spring has been worked over + fixed under E. C. W. On south side of the spring Long Mustache built a fence for farm in our place. He did it without getting permission from my father or family. And Des-Chee-ni-Begay put one a mile south from Long Mustache. This make two fences in our place.

Once when I was at home I asked him if he could break up the fence and move. He answered me that he would not do that. He says unless the ground dry up. And he is not going to move the hogan that he built lately. At this present time I want him to break up the fence + put away—he can do all the fencing around his own place and plant whatever he wishes instead of our place. And also I want him to move his new hogans back to Sheep-corral that’s where he belongs. If he take the fence off and move the hogan back where it belongs, that’s the only way our trouble will come to end. Then otherwise the trouble between us will continue. All my family want is to break-up the fence + move the hogan back to about four (4) mile and keep it there. But I don’t think that Mr. Curely will judge it that way—(even that’s his job). He has no respect whatever toward my father, as he knows that my [father] had paralyzed his whole right side, can’t move his arm + right leg + can’t walk himself. My father is to be recognize through a government service from Crownpoint, Fort Defiance, and ChinLee, Arizona. He helped white officials in many ways on Indian service. He has helped service ever since government established the Indian service.

Several weeks ago when I was at ChinLee, I happened to meet my brother-in-law after the court was held. My bro. told me that Long Mustache’s outfit were continue. A boy named Gray Boy—step-son of Long Mustache took our cattle before the sun-set and drove them across the Noisy Lake flat + through Slim Red Masa south side of this lake. But my bro was trace him right along—finally he found these cattle and took them back to the place where they had been taken from. But Gray Boy was never caught that night until next morning he was been asked by the man who trace him. Gray Boy told a truth that he took the cattle across. He that Long Mustache gave him an order to do so. According U.S. Law no person shall not take another person property without notifying the owner. The boy who took + drove the cattle are to be given punishment. Same way about land lancery. I would like to have the following mens to be present at next meeting—Long Mustache + Wife, Des-Chee-ni-Begay, Gray Boy and Di-nih-Chilini-Begay. The man who we believe helped Long Mustache to build a fence. I think I mentioned everything what I want. Hope that we’ll get help from you when we’re ready for court. May I ask you to set a day for us. I have told you my reason for repeal the case or review the case.

Very truly yours,

John H. Lee

6. ADOLPH MALONEY, AUGUST 9, 1937

A well-known man from the Tuba City area, Maloney was not alone in offering qualified support for livestock reduction. Like many Diné, Maloney recognized that the lands had deteriorated and something needed to be done. He believed those who owned the most livestock should bear more of the burden of this program. Although willing to name names, he still wanted to