Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1926-03-26
Navajo Indians
Influenced by
Oil and Education

San Juan Indian Agency, Arlz.'
Mar. 24-AP>-Oil and education are
leaving the stamp Of their influence
on the Navajo Indians.
Wealth from the one is enabling
them to buy" civilization, and edu-
cation teaches desires. Soon. 1t Is
to be expected, the Navajos will be
as affluent as the Osages in Okla
homa.
. The Indian agency has been kept
busy providing schools for the brown
skinned Navajo youngsters. A. II.
Kneale, superintendent of the reser-
walton, reports the San Juan school
capacity was doubled in the past
year, and $50 children now are
taught the ways Of the white man.
The San Juan schools teach only six
grades. Three hundred and fifty
higher students are scattered IN
Indian institutions throughout the
west.
Most of the first graders have
never been out of sight of their own
''hogans." These are family dwelling
places built by piling mud on conf
cal fromeworks OF poles. They
have never worn shoes nor hats,
never eaten at table, nor ever seen
a stove, picture, newspaper or chair.
Civilization and American patriotism
as well as the English language and
arithmetic. are being taught them.
1.-The children have never eaten
what a civilized person would call
meal" Mr.. Kneale said. "They
have thrived on beef and horse meat,
to- mill nnd les served on
the dirt floors of the hogans.' They
do not know what sanitation and
hygiene is, and they have not seen
the simplest tools that make civilized
people comfortable. But they learn
quickly. In addition to the three Rs
we teach the girls to cook, sew and
keep house and the boys carpentry,
farming and the manual arts"
The Navojos have a natural apti-
tude for agriculture and stock rails
ing. Far back in history they were
not famous as warriors but as tillers
Of the soil. Today they are shep-
herds, shepherds of 10000 indivi-
dually owned sheep. The name
Navajo was given by the Spaniards
and means people of large fields"
Mr.. Kneale said the adults were
quickly taking up the civilization the
new generation taxes nome from
school. Modern machinery Is being
used for farming and the "hogans'
are being transformed into houses.
The oil which now is pouring
wealth into the laps of the Navajos
was discovered four years ago, but
inaccessibility prevented rapid de-
velopment. Thirty-siX wells have
since been drilled, most of them
good producers. A small pipeline has
been completed to Pennington. n. M.
A larger pipeline is projected. The
Navajos receive royalty OF twelve
and one-half per cent.
The Navajos, however, although
one of the least civilized of the tribes,
never has had to be supported by
the government. The San Juan Is
one of six Navajo superintendencies
having a total population of $4,000.
In addition to sheep, the Indians have
cattle, goats and ponies. A few of
the ponies are used as beasts of bur-
den, many are slaughtered for food.
but the most have no use. They
simply clutter up the landscape and
eat reservation grass.
Every Navajo woman is a weaver
and a girl learns the art as soon as
she is able to walk. Rugs valued at
100000 are sold from the San Juan
reservation yearly. Navajo pottery
and baskets add to the income now
being swelled by oil.