Arizona republican., 1901-03-09
THE WEALTH OF THE HAvAHos
Estimates Have Been Placed Entirely
 Too High.

wealthy in HockS and herds, many of the members of the Navaho tribe, loca- ted In Arizona and New Mexico. are AS poor as many Indians elsewhere. Per haps. if the truth was known. the pos- sessions of the Navahos have been ex- aggerated to some extent in the public mind. says the Native American. Con- ceding. howevkr, that they have thous- ands upon thousands of head of sheep and goats. there are many individual there are among civilized people. Prop erty Is not held In common. and hence of necessity-there congratulations in tho social scale. caused by possession of greater or less amounts of riches.
 The Navahos number fully 10000, and occupy an extremely large but sterile reservation. The mesa lands furnish grazing for the herds and in some ca ses the valleys permit of limited amount of agriculture. Az the altitude is high the growing seasons are short, frost appearing as late as June. and as early in the fall as September. The timber found on the mountains and hills is almost entirely pine. the .alt!- tude discouraging the growth of decid- uous trees. There is reason to believe that the reservation is rich in minerals, and especially rich In coal. Prospect ing and mining have. however, beer, discouraged by the Indians themselves and through outside causes.
 White men who are thoroughly ac- quainted with the condition of the Nav aho people generally agree that the number of sheep and goats owned by them has been exaggerated. Popular estimates have placed their possessions in this particular as high as 1,5O0,00O head. The truth Is that the number will not exceed 500.000 and the census returns last year show that the round number of 100000 Is really closer to the figure. In 1S9S-99. however, the Maya no flock owners sustained loss of 90 per cent. so that in the full flush of their prosperity the Navahos probably never had more than coo, 900 head of sheep. Conditions for the past tw, years are best shown. however, by the report of the agent, Maj. Geo. w. Hayz- lett. submitted a few months ago to the commissioner of Indian affairs, in part as follows:
 The rainfall is steadily decreasing. consequently the grass and other pro- ducts of this country in like degree. The winter of 1S9S-99 We had unusually deep snow, which remained all winter. and in the spring the snow appeared to evaporate. going off without leaving much moisture in the ground but the Indians as usual planted their corn. |. ( dry. and in places the seed never sprouted. There was not enough rain to lay the dust until the 10th of July, consequently they had q very ligh. crop. Not enough corn was raised to bread one-fourth of the people, hence many had to follow their old custom of eating meat alone. or largely so. For tunately the crop of pinyons (pine nuts) was unusually good and they were very prompt in gathering them. These nuts they could sell readily to the traders for cash or trade for flour. Thus they got through the last winter compara- lively well, so far as food was concern l ed.
 Last winter was very mild. and with no snow during the winter their fiocks could get all the sage brush that there was, consequently the loss in their fiocks was very light compared to the winter before. What died was more for want of water than from starvation but this last spring found them in a much worse condition. The ground was much more parched and vegetation was seemingly dead. On the Fist of March We had a good rain, but that was toe early in this country for vegetation tc start and by the time the proper sea son arrived the ground was perfectly dry and parched. Most of the Indians planted their crops as usual, but the ] ground, being so very dry. many fields