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As the Navajo returned home, they still faced many problems. The land of the new reservation was quickly stressed by the demands of the new population. The Navajo ponies and sheep were long gone. There was little seed. Many of the always-fragile orchards and fields had been burned down during the military campaign of 1864. Ditches, dams and terraces had been torn down, or been untended, eroded, and allowed to collapse. In addition, the land was now to be asked to support many more people, as Navajo from other regions, who had traditionally roamed the areas of central New Mexico, the Rio Grande valley, or southwestern Colorado were asked to return, not their traditional homes, but to the new reservation.Washington provided assistance, but it was often too little, and the arrival of relief was often sporadic. Starvation still occurred, and some of the Navajo were reduced to eating prairie dogs, rats, and weeds during their first months back home. It is estimated that approximately 8,000 people were settled on the reservation in 1868. Relief finally arrived, with the distribution of sheep and goats from the government in 1869. The Navajo attempted to keep to themselves, in their canyon and surrounding hills, over the next few years, but the White Man's world was beginning to intrude still more into Dine bi Keyah.
In 1876, Lorenzo Hubbell opened his first trading post, now a National Historic Site, in Pueblo Colorado wash, west of Window Rock, in Navajo territory. The Smithsonian Institution sent a party of scientists to Canyon de Chelly in 1882, for an expedition which would bring the Navajo to the attention of the cultured community in Washington. In 1886, Hubbell opened another trading post, this time at Chinle, just outside the mouth of Canyon de Chelly. The Navajo quickly learned that they could turn their wool into blankets and clothing that were attractive to the Anglos. Navajo men became recognized as good silversmiths, creating products that traded well with Hubbell. Still the Navajo stuck to their farming and grazing ways, avoiding outside influences. The first school for the Navajo did not open until 1900, in Chinle.
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Contents, including illustrations, copyright T. K. Reeves, 1997.
on 5 April, 1997.
