The Navajos Since The Coming of The Spaniards

        The Navajos once had been a powerful people. Then the Spaniards came to the Navajo country and their coming marked the beginning of a period of trouble for the Indians. The Navajos, their numbers reduced by warfare with the Spaniards, retreated westward to Canyon de Chelly (pronounced "canyon de sha") in Arizona, which was so hard to reach that the Indians felt safe there. When the tribe, protected by the canyon from enemies, had become larger and stronger, the Navajos returned to their former lands. In the course of time they grew to be a powerful people once more. 

       But the Navajos again were threatened with destruction when they came into contact with the advance of the westward-moving pioneer settlers. For several years the natives fought bitterly against the pioneers and against the United States Government. Colonel Kit Carson, one of the toughest fighters in the West, was sent by the Government to subdue the Navajos. War and disease took many lives and at last the tribe accepted a treaty. 

       Under the terms of the treaty, most of the Navajos were removed to eastern New Mexico, where they were held in captivity for four years. They were fed by the Government, but they did not know how to use the strange foods. Some of the food made them sick because they prepared it in the wrong way or because it had spoiled. Then to make things worse, the corn crop failed for several seasons. The indigenous people weakened by not having enough food to eat, fell easy prey to disease and many of them died. 

       Finally a new treaty was drawn up. The Navajos were sent back to their own part of the country, where rations, blankets, a yoke of oxen, and a plow were given to each family and, in addition, two sheep to each adult and each child. After the Navajos returned to their home, they became healthy again. The tribe increased in numbers until by 1942 there were about fifty thousand Navajos living in the Southwest. 

       The Navajos took good care of the sheep that the Government had given them and built up large flocks until sheep raising came to be one of their main occupations. But after years of continued use, the land began to show the effects of overgrazing. Agents of the United States Government knew that this overgrazing eventually would wear out the land so that enough sheep could not be raised to support the constantly growing Navajo population. For this reason they urged the Navajos to reduce the size of their flocks. 

       To make up for the decreased number of sheep on the range, the Government has tried to help the Navajos to raise an improved type of sheep that would give the Navajos a greater annual income from the sale of mutton and wool than they had received from their former huge flocks of native sheep. Approximately one-fourth of the total annual production of wool on the Reservation was woven by the Navahos into blankets and rugs. by Roberta Caldwell.

• Read more about the Navajo today
• The Navajo housing crises  
• The History of Uranium Mining and the Navajo People
• For The Navajo Nation, Uranium Mining's Deadly Legacy Lingers
  
• A female-led energy company is bringing green power to the Navajo Nation and pdf. about Navajo Generation Station and Clean-Energy Alternatives