They occupy an extensive reservation in northern Arizona and New
Mexico, that adjoins the Hopi reservation on the north and east.
They now
number some twenty thousand souls, and are slowly on the increase. They are
proud, independent, and desirous of being left alone by the United States
Government.
Punishment for Depredations. In the early days, before they had learned the
power of the new people who had flocked into the land, they committed many
depredations upon Americans, and when remonstrated with were insolent and
defiant. So an expedition was sent against them, and large numbers - the
major portion of the tribe were arrested and moved near Fort Bayard - the
Bosque Redondo - in New Mexico, on the Pecos River. Here the conditions were
so adverse that many scores of them died, and when, finally, they were
allowed to return, it was an humbled people that wended its way back to the
high mesa lands they had for so many centuries called their own.
Navaho Customs. Linguistically, the Navaho is akin to the Apache and the
Tinneh of Alaska; indeed, he calls himself Tinne. In winter he lives in a
rude shelter of logs and mud called a hogan. In summer this is changed for
a simple brush stack, which affords shade from the sun, and yet allows free
course of the cooling air. He is a polygamist, and lives with his one or
more wives, as he can afford. His chief industries are cattle, horse and
sheep-raising.
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