John F. Beck Film of Navajo Reservation
odd: label: General
content: HSFA 1992.3.1
name: label: Creator
content: Beck, John F.
place: label: Place
content: North America
label: Place
content: Arizona
topic: label: Topic
content: tribal government
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: Received from John F. Beck in 1992.
creator: label: Creator
content: Beck, John F.
culture: label: Culture
content: Diné (Navajo)
physdesc: label: Extent
content: Film reels (black-and-white sound; 1,144 feet, 16mm)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1953
custodhist: label: Custodial History
content: Previously titled "Navajo Reservation 1953."
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Human Studies Film Archives
identifier: label: Identifier
content: HSFA.1992.03
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Film reels
label: Type
content: Sound films
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Sound films
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Roughly edited film shot on the Navajo Reservation in 1953 for CBS' See It Now.  The show was never completed and thus never aired.

Assembled footage intended for television broadcast was shot in the northwest region of the Navajo reservation near Chilchinbito, Arizona. Footage documents aspects of early implementation of the Navajo-Hopi Improvement Act (1950) and its impact on health care, education, improved roads and communications, and the upgrading and expansion of local industries. Scenes include a local radio station, women visiting clinics and dispensaries, work in tribal industries (including lumber, coal, and uranium mining), and domestic life in and around hogans. Also included is silver smithing at the only site where this work was conducted as a collective tribal effort. Sound records dialogue of the Navajo tribal council at Window Rock, Arizona, on issues such as mandated universal education.

Please note that the contents of the collection and the language and terminology used reflect the context and culture of the time of its creation. As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology and considered offensive today. The information within this collection does not reflect the views of the Smithsonian Institution or Anthropology Archives, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.