Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-12-27
TRAITS OF THE NAVAJOS.
Their Relation to Horses and Dogs
Inveterate Gamblers.

From the Southern Workman
The Navajo is an inveterate gambler Not
only are there the professionals who live
entirely by the practice, but even the small
boys are gamesters, and adapt the picto-
rial Sunday school cards to gaming pur-
poses. Their blankets Illustrate gambling,
and even their account of the creation must
have woven into 1t the story of a game.
Thus, a serious and apparently native vice
of formidable proportions at once confronts
the teacher and the missionary. The ques-
ton of the best way to overcome 1t is still
an open one. The prohibition of its practice
does not go to the root of the matter. and
all our logic fails to convince the Indian
that he has not as great a right to play for
stakes as he has to breathe
a curious trait of the Navajo common
no doubt to all Indians is. his relation to
his horses and his dogs To our mind it is
incomprehensible. Every man maintains
many dogs, and for what reason 1t is diff
cut to discover. They are ill-kept starv
ing, cowardly CANNES, which bear as little
resemblance to our own intelligent, devoted
dogs as can be imagined. They are not for
use, certainly not for beauty, and appar
emily they are no protection. l have never
heard any reasonable explanation OF the
Indians having so many; perhaps he con-
siderS tt at the more he maintain the
more important he IS! Toward his horses
his attitude seems even more singular.
They are, of course, part of his wealth, but
from our point Of view he should have a
favorite one among them all, to which he
Should give more care and devotion. From
small boyhood he draws horses in the sand
or on the rocks, and as early learns to ride
and to rope the real animal. He spends
most of his time horseback TIL he dies.
He celebrates his horses in his blankets,
and learns also the most difficult horse
manship, of which he is very proud But
apparently one animal is the same as an
other to him. He will ride one to death
and select it's successor from the herd, TO
break 1t by the most cruel method. or to
element developed in the beast. The bits
used make one shudder to look upon, and in
buying q Navajo horse it Is said that one
must wish to find scars on the animal in
dicating that it has been so severely ham
died in the breaking that its spirit has been
broken. l have seen horses whipped till the
blood ran. This was done without anger,
! apparently. but indifferently, If there
We're no other way. Our own little Navajo
animal, which had been gentled by careful
treatment was finally resod to Its original
owner. The man was an intelligent person,
who could speak good English and who had
! had considerable intercourse with the
white man; but when asked him earnestly
| TO be good to the horse he had no more
comprehension than If l were talking Sans
krit.
AS 1 stood OH the last mesa looking back
upon the hot, silent, beautiful, but I'M
profitable stretches of the Navajo land, and
down upon the gorgeous painted desert
which seemed his rightful artistic back
ground / pondered earnestly upon the fu-
ture of my Navajo friends. No race or
family in this age can live always to itself,
and some day to these people will come
the inevitable collision with the forces OF
the outside world, and we have to do with
the great question Of preparing him for the
impact.