The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-05-06
SUNDAY, MAY c. 1908.
AMONG THE NAvAIos.

The May issue of Sturms Statehood Magazine. now published at Tulsa, In- dian Territory, has an interest ing paper on the Navajo Indians and their manners and customs. The Navas jos belong to the great Athapascan stock. which includes the Apaches and other tribes inhabiting the North west country. Although fierce In war they are largely a pastoral people, their inclinations running largely to sheep raising, at which they are very snccessful In fact, it is said that there Is hardly a family in the entire reservation which does not own a dock Of sheep. These are tended al- most entirely by the women and chil- 1ren, and the writer of the article says of them: Navajo women and children are perhaps the best shep- herds in the world. They watch over watches over her infant child. When the weather is cold and damp they frequently take the little lambs into their hogans or their tepees and wrap them up in soft woolly skins to pro- tect them from the cold, and should a young lamb lose it's mother the wo- men will often nurse 1t from their own breasts. as they would their infant baby"
 Under such conditions it is natur- al that the wool of these sheep is very fine. and 1t Is also natural that these people early learned to utilize 1t. It is supposed that the women learned the art of weaving from the Pueblo h. dians. using barks. grasses and the hair of various animals as material. When the NavaJos acquired flocks of sheep 1t was not long till the women of the tribe learned the value of wool, and it is not strange that they soon began to use it in making blankets It is stated that the blanket industry of those Indians Is the largest aborig- inal industry in North America. The Navajo blanket. soft, closely woven and often highly ornamented is known in almost every part of the civilized world; and yet their methods of pre- pairing the wool and weaving 1t into blankets Is almost as simple as 1t might have been among their ancestors centuries ago. Modern machinery and appliances have little attractions for them.
 As a consequence of their careful and tedious process and of the skill acquired through generations of rrac- tiee, some of these blankets are very valuable. single specimens sometimes selling for s250. The Indian men rare- ly wear them, except on great occa- sions, for they can take one of the very cheapest quality and exchange 1t with trader for three or four of the blankets sent out by white traders especially for the Indian trade. and it is not to be wondered at that they trade on their own valuable articles for the much cheaper ones which do them just as well for ordinary use. The writer of the article states that these Indians made and sold over $1OO.0O0 worth of these blankets last year. no small matter for them.
 As a general thing these Indians are very much as they have always been. The civilization of the whites has made little impression on them. In their domestic life and habits. their religion, their marriage and funeral customs. they are practically what they were in the days before the white man came among them, and the in teresting article from which we have quoted gives many details of their lives and habits not generally known. -e-o-O--~-