Evening star., 1936-08-20
(This is the fifth OF series OF
stories on the Najapo Indidns.)
BY THOMAS r. HENRY,
STAFF Correspondent Of The Star

BY THOMAS H. HENRY,
z STAFF Correspondent Of The Star.
y WINDOW ROCK, Ariz., Au-
: "a gust 20.-This Is North
{ wv Americas Inner Mongolia.
; The 23,o00,00O acres Of
fantastic desert interspersed with
green valleys-an area about the size
sof West Virginia-which constitutes
THE Navajo Indian Reservation IS like
. chunk of Middle Asia set down
bodily on top of the United States.
The unique architecture is Asian.
These Indians live in round stone or
log houses, with saucer-shaped log
roofs covered with earth, the nearest
sparallel to which is found in the felt
''verts of the Mongolian nomads. The
way of life Is Asian-the shepherd
Ing, the piles of sheep skins. piled on
the earth floors for beds. The Navajo
language has a Mongol favor. The
names are more suggestive Of Mongol
than Indian-such names of Mel Nishi
and Toadachenie Cheschillie. which
belong to two leaders Of the tribe.
There is an indescribable something
about the faces Of many OF the men
and women which seems more Mongol
than Indian, although there has been
20 much intermixture with other In
dian tribes that it is difficult to Isolate
. typical Navajo. There Is practicaliy
no white intermixture.
Came Late From North.
The inhabitants Of this region con-
stitute a unique contingent Of Uncle
Sans family. They are Indians, but
of a somewhat divergent type. They
were late comers, probably out OF
the Far North, into the country upon
which they descended as predatory
raiders. Perhaps they represent one
sof the latest of the waves of migra-
ton out Of Asia across Bering Strait,
by which North America was peopled
over a period of 10000 years. Orig
inally they were neither farmers, like
the red men of the more advanced
civilizations to the south of them
nor hunters like the plains Indians to
the North. They never became
hunters, to any great extent. They
brought into the Southwest with them
the strange veneration Of the bear,
which is pronounced among the tribes
sof Northern Asia. The mountainsides
are covered with their strange cylin-
tdrical stone shrines and with deserted,
collapsed hoguns, houses where some
body has died and which forever after
will be Stunned.
They are a people apart, $4,000 Of
them divided into about 10000 fam
flies. They are increasing more rap
idly, it is likely, than any other
people on earth today. The rate is
about az per cent year-and going
up all the time. The rate for the
country as whole Is about IA per
cent. The Navajos seem to be in that
critical stage of culture where they
get the benefits of the life-preserving
factors of present civilization and
primitive existence combined. They
have not developed high blood pres
sure from high living nor nervous de-
bility from worrying over the months
bills, yet they have the advantages
of the best medical science can offer.
Since 1868 their numbers have in
creased from 5000.
I Almost up to the present they have
been, by and large, self-suf1cient In
their mountain domain Very few
Navajos ever have drifted into the
white mans way of life, or left their
native mountains. They have con-
tinued to live, as their ancestors have
lived for countless generations, of
their cornf1elds and their sheep. Only
recently has this started to break
down q little. With the deterioration
Of their country many Of the men
have been forced to go to work on
Federal projects to get money to buy
food, and as q result the reservation