Arizona republican., 1920-02-13
GIVE S125,000 TOENLARGE THE
 NAVAJO MISSION
The Woman's Presbyterian Home Missions Board Authorizes This Work Done at GanadO, in Nor thern Arizona

An expenditure of $125,0 has been authorized by the womans board of home missions of the Presbyterian church in the United States for the erection of additional school buildings at the Presbyterian station, Ganado, Arizona, 40 miles from Gallup. These buildings will help minister to the needs of 30, 900 Navajo Indians on the 12,0O0 square mile reservation em-
 bracing northern Arizona and New Mexico and southern Utah.
 Ganado is the educational center of the Presbyterian home mission work, being conducted on the Navajo reser- vation, which conducts 10 stations at Fort Defiance Tuba, Kayenta, Tol- chaco, Leupp, Indian Wells, Shiprock, Liberty, Carriso and Bedrock. The Navajo reservation is looked on by the Presbyterian church as one of the neediest home mission fields now be- ing aided by Presbyterianss
 The school at Ganado is known as the Presbyterian Kirkwood Memorial school. and is doing a great work among the Indians, although crowded much beyond capacity. A large cen tral building hall which has been bad 1y needed is now in course of cOmple tion, and a college dormitory and ad- miniStration building are to be added. The Indians are aiding in building and despite labor troubles the work is pro- gressing.
 The school will have a capacity of more than 200 students and will in ciude facilities for manual training and teaching of household arts we'll as regular subjects. The dormitories will have a capacity of approximately 200 boarding students.
 The Navajos, known chiefly for their beautiful woven blankets, are a pro- Indians are dying out, for during the past 50 years their number has in creased from 5000 to 30,000. Despite what has been done for them, they are still primitive and live chiefly in small huts. called hogans. where their simple housekeeping is carried on. Women and men work hard. the woman doing what she can to support the family by the loom, and the man by sheep raising. haAling wood and doing other odd jobs.
 Despite these good tendencies, the appalling thing to the Presbyterian mission workers is the great ignorance and superstitution found in this tribe. l One of their strongest superstitions is 1 the belief that woman should never | look orf her soni law in the face ! or she will go blind. The husband go- l ing to live with his wife at the wife'S | home keeps the mother-in- Jaw in con- l stant dread of facing him.
 Another superstition is that a dead | persons spirit, especially that of a | child, is most malignant. This leads to horrible practices of placing the sick | and dying out in the cold and allowing | them to die in torture through fear of | approaching them and thus falling un- | der the spell of the evil spirit
 The native polytheiStic religion of | the Navajos also keeps them in terror, every natural occurrence, good or evil, being attributed to some one of these gods. The medicine man still has a strong hold here and the mission hos pitals have this doctor" of weird prac tices to combat in their efforts to rem der real medical attention to the sick Indians. The Presbyterians do three kinds of work among this people: school mission and medical, wfeA the end in view of aiding and then evan 
 The greater part of the region of the Navajo reservation is arid waste. To reach the station at Canada, where the Presbyterians not only conduct the work, but medical and evangelistic we'll. a trip of 40 miles, either on horseback or by automobile, must be made from Gallup. on the bor- der between New Mexico and Arizona. The trip is largely through the famed Painted Desert in which water and wind erosions have for ages cut the soft red sandstone until now there stand grotesque semblances of animals and human beings.
 At this and of the other Presbyterian mission stations, the children and old CT people are taught department and useful branches and they learn The Presbyterian mis- slon buildings at Canada are the only signs of civilization for miles around.