The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1913-04-11

laps the COut1ucutA1 OAsAOo
like a gigantic saddle blanket.
and may be briefly described further
% q 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 it's interesting in
habltants, 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 1848, the Nava-
JOS had become quite generally pas
toral people, subsisting upon their
docks, 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 were 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 3d.
600 sheep and 1000 goats, which by
careful outstanding 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 focks Of the more
thrifty, In many instances, numbering
several thousand head, thus enabling
the p6ssessors to live In comparative
ease or aff1uence even. It is, indeed,
the exception rather than the rule to
find a 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,
woman's standing in the Navajo tribe
II 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
It Is on her that their care and man
agement largely devolve.
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 reservation make It neces.
sary to move the flocks during certain
seasons. For these reasons. to which
must be coupled the itinerant nro.
clivtties 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, state of affairs that fits in we'll
with Navajo disposition to wander. in
her1ted from his forbears. who lived
by hunting and plunderine the
change from a rowing hunter tn a
nomadic herdsman being an easy and
perhaps natural one.
Ranges Divided.
IN the summer months the family
repair with their fiocks to the hiph
mountainous areas, where thrive mag.
nificent belts Of timber consisting Of
yellow pine. fir. spruce, scrub oak.
pinon, juniper and cedar. Flourishinr
within these timbered tracts are mn
merous grassy stretches that furnish
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.
As q rule. whether on the summer
or winter pasture lands. the family &C.
cupy the same locality. In each case
year after year. the range being a.
vided in some manner among the va.
rious clans that constitute the Navajo
tribe. and again subdivided among tha
families, where it Is handed down
through some system Of entail from
one generation to another. In a a.
cluded place remote from springs. VA.
tering sites and trails near 4 SINAI,
arabic tract, the summer hogan Il "a,
uated, near which are the corrals for
tho sheen and ronioe 81