The Madison journal. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1888-current, 1913-03-29

laps tue
like a gigantic saddle blanket.
and may be briefly described further
as a great broken plateau OF some
$4,000 square miles in area, semi-arid
In its climatic features and overgrown
quite generally with hardy growth OF
vegetation. including many valuable
forage plants unsurpassed for grazing
purposes-a resource long since turn
ed to account by its interesting in
habitants, the Navajos, the owners of
100000 sheep, the income from which
renders them practically independent
Of the whites and the benevolent pa
ternalism of the federal government
At the time of the American occupa
ton of New Mexico in 1S4S, the Nava-
jos had become quite generally a pas
toral people, subsisting upon their
focks, which were added to, accord
ing to accounts of the times, by others
stolen from the Pueblos and the Mex
lean settlers with whom they we're not
infrequently at enmity. During the
COS when the tribe was at war with
the United States their herds and
property were ruthlessly killed and
destroyed and the men. women and
children carried of in captivity to
Fort Sumner.
Children Belong to Mother.
Following their release and return
to the reservation, the United States
government. in 1869, gave them 80
600 sheep nd 1000 goats, which by
careful hus--nding they have increas-
ed to the present extensive dimen-
sons. becoming the principal posses
sion of each family and its chief means
Of support. the fiocks of the more
thrifty. in many instances, numbering
several thousand head, thus enabling
the possessors to live in comparative
ease or affiuence even. 1t is, indeed
the exception rather than the rule to
find family without herd of sheep
They, in fact, are the royal road to
power and influence in the tribe. ones
rank being automatically regulated
by the size of his flock, the greater
ones possessions the more exalted his
position.
AS among other primitive peoples,
womans standing in the Navajo tribe
Is high, descent and inheritance being
in her line, the children belonging to
the mother and her clan. By tribal
prerogative she is the principal prop
erty owner. the lands. houses. crops
and sheep being hers exclusively, ana
1t is on her that their care and man.
agement largely de, olive.
The scarcity of water and grass at
certain seasons, the difference in alti-
tude Of the various sections, the conse-
quent attendant climatic variations
and the peculiar character of the plant
life on the re>rvation make it neces-
sary to move the flocks during certain
seasons. For these reasons, to which
must be coupled the itinerant pro-
clivities Of the tribe, the Navajo has
no permanent abode. his movements
being regulated to a very great extent
by the waxing and waning of the pas
lures, a state of affairs that fits in well
with Navajo disposition to wander. in.
herited from his forbears, who lived
by hunting and plundering, the
change from a rowing hunter to a
nomadic herdsman being an easy and
perhaps a natural one.
| Ranges Divided.
In the summer months the family
repair with their flocks to the high
mountainous areas. where thrive mag
nificent belts of timber consisting OF
yellow pine. fir. spruce. scrub o-A
pinon, juniper and cedar. Flourish e
within these timbered tracts are III
merous grassy stretches that furni h
excellent pasturage for the herds
Then, too, the climate is more con
genial and water more abundant than
on the lower semi-arid sections else
where.